


Good Morning

by twogoodboys



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Demon Brendon Urie, Demon Dallon Weekes, Emo Quartet, Emo Trinity, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz, M/M, POV Multiple, Plot Twists, Vampire Gerard Way, Vampire Pete Wentz, eventual gerard way/frank iero, eventual josh dun/tyler joseph, for sad friends to read, ghost patrick stump, ghost!Patrick, other characters along the way - Freeform, palaye royale - Freeform, supernatural antique shop, vampire green day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-04-22 17:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 28,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14313750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twogoodboys/pseuds/twogoodboys
Summary: Frank is a mortician intern when he meets a friendly vampire, Gerard. Frank is soon trying to protect from larger forces with a misfit group of ghouls.Tyler is a high school student who accidentally gets caught up in a deadly game after he and Josh break into the local mortuary at night. He is left questioning the very fabric of his being.Pete is a vampire, he's old, he shouldn't be getting caught up in trouble. But here he is, protecting the vampire he sired, Gerard.On the run, these unlikely allies take refuge in a supernatural antique shop where they find friendship, even more unlikely allies, chess and a tonne of weird shitmultiple uploads a week!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Franks POV

Frank burned his tongue sipping from his shitty polystyrene cup. He looked regretfully at rays retreating back, because in his morning daze Frank had already completely forgotten which bodies he had been told to prep. Ending up using the fail-proof method of eenie meenie minie moe he found himself in front of  
"Edith."  
The 84-year-old ex-librarian, Frank shuddered remembering her from his school days, her wheezy voice echoing through his head.  
"Just us now friend. Shit why are you so creepy, I swear if you get up and drink my blood I will pour this scorching tea all over you." Frank told her as he began to dress and apply makeup to her gaunt face.  
Once Edith had been set fully, Frank closed her fridge door and moved on, scanning the room for some clue of what was to be done next. There was a patient lying on a trolley in the middle of the cold room, silhouetted by a heavy blue blanket. Five tall fridges lined the back wall, their steel doors reflecting back a distorted frank looking lost.  
The farthest fridge door was rusting slightly, unnervingly there seemed to be a few drops of blood on the floor in front of it,  
"Ooh bad vibes"  
Ever drawn to creepy shit, Frank cautiously made his way over, quickly slipping on a new pair of latex gloves and grasping the handle. The chill from the cool steel made him shiver. Nevertheless, he opened the door and peered in.  
"Good morning!" A voice from within the fridge called out. Yes within.  
Frank froze, hand still outstretched holding the cool metal, unable to process what could possibly be happening.  
“Hello?” he said not letting his voice betray his fear.  
He briefly allowed himself the impossible hope that no one would answer him.  
"Are you okay? Don't fret, hey do you want me to get you some tea or something, I'm sure there are PG tips in the cupboard over there? Hey sit down.”  
Obliging he perched himself on the edge of one of the steel tables like a puppet on a string ready to jump up at any given moment. The man? Man, Frank decides. Walked across the room to begin rifling through a set of drawers, Frank watched him, noticing that he bounced slightly as he moved around, with greasy black hair managing to somehow pull off a cool vibe, even while wearing slippers.  
"Um, is this some kind of prank, or do I need to call the cops?"  
Instead of replying the other man continued to stir sugar into the tea and handed frank the cup,  
"here, drink this"  
Sniffing the suspicious liquid and feeling ridiculous for doing so, Frank weighed up his options, this could be drugged or it could be some sweet tea, after taking a sip he realized that this tea was definitely better and that he wouldn't be using the shitty drinks machine in the reception again.  
"So, Frank, how're you finding your first day?"  
Spluttering Frank raspsed out "Wait how do you know my name? Who are you? Have I been set up?"  
"Oh, Ray has been talking about you for days. He's been really excited about this mentoring stuff. I'm Gerard, this is um, my home I guess"  
Instead of trying to process this information Frank decided to change the subject in the interest of preserving his sanity.  
"Right." after pointedly looking around the mortuary at the silhouetted corpses frank smirked, "So, are these your pals?"  
Gerard let out a high pitched giggle "I suppose in a way"  
The door behind them opened at that moment, a very frayed looking Ray walking in, pausing after noticing the two men conversing,  
"Ah" he said scratching the back of his neck, "I guess you've met Gerard then?"  
"Good morning!" Gerard chirped out, apparently not seeing anything untoward about the situation.  
"Ray thanks for letting me know about the homeless guy living in the fridge"  
Out of the corner of his eye, Frank could see Gerard absentmindedly smiling and looking between the two of them.  
"Well, just, take a deep breath okay Frank? Soooo, this is Gerard and he kinda lives here because he's-"  
Gerard chose that moment to interrupt, looking at the dark circles beneath Rays eyes, "Ray, would you like a cup of tea?"  
Nodding absentmindedly ray continued "Well, he's a vampire. There was an incident a while back, this guy, we're friends now. He came in one morning, with this crazy look in his eye, he really scared me at first, anyway he begged me to check the new corpses. Talking crazy stuff about how he'd accidentally turned this guy, Gerard, into a vampire and just to get him to stop pestering me I let him come in. Then, of course, we found this kid just sitting up on one of the tables, name tag still around his ankle, smiling sweet as pie. Long story short, he's my friend, makes himself useful, drains the bodies before I embalm them and stuff you know?"  
Frank watched as Gerard placed a steaming cup into Ray's hands as he was talking and gently ushered him further into the room, offering him a seat, which ray accepted apparently without noticing.  
"Yea, I'm really sorry that I forgot to explain before, he hasn't weirded you out or anything has he? Not started pulling back the blankets and reading the corpses bedtime stories has he?" Ray looked genuinely anxious.  
"He does that?"  
Ray simply nodded, finally having noticed the tea in his hands and taking a sip.  
"You're really a vampire?" Frank asked, turning to where Gerard was plating up some cookies.  
In response, Gerard simply flashed him a smile, two tiny fangs exposed, along with a matching set of tiny teeth.


	2. Boys Break In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tylers POV

"So I got hold of a camera and I know this guy with a sweet afro works there on Tuesdays! He's super chill and never locks the windows so I'm pretty sure I can get in. It's gonna be sick as frick guys" Tyler rambled to the disinterested group of kids at his lunch table. Ryan Ross looked up from his sandwich long enough for Tyler to realize that he hadn’t been paying attention. The only person who actually seemed to have been is a boy who had been lingering next to their table with bright red hair and an absent minded smile.  
Josh was new at the school, Tyler thought this was perfect.  
"Yea so I need backup and someone to hold the camera, you're in Josh" Tyler said looking up expectantly at the boy he'd vaguely recognized from first period.  
"Wha-" Josh looked confused, Tyler found this cute.

 

After spending the rest of the day paying very little attention in class in favor of daydreaming about his plans for later Tyler hightailed out of last period.  
"Josh!" Tyler yelled down the hallway to where he could see red hair in the crowd  
"Hey man, you ready for your breakthrough performance?" Tyler asked as he quickly caught up to him, waving his hands excitedly.  
"Oh, oka-"  
"Sweet, if you come back to mine now we can grab the equipment and you can borrow my brothers' bike." Tyler said all in one breath.  
The walk back was fast, mainly because Tyler was half running, hand clasped around Joshs wrist. Grabbing the two bikes tyler shouted vaguely in the direction of his house "Mum I'll be back late!"  
"Don't do anything irresponsible Ty!" he could distantly hear his mother shout as they start riding away.  
By the time they get off of their bikes the sun is setting, Tyler explained vaguely about not wanting to seem suspicious.  
He took this opportunity to observe Josh, he looked kinda punk, like if you saw him from a distance you might be intimidated but as soon as you saw his sweet eyes and dumb smile you would realize that you kinda wanna be his best friend, or at least Tyler did. They walked in silence for a while.  
"You're not in the mission anymore Josh" Tyler blurted out finding himself giddy with the excitement of it all.  
Josh looked up confused.  
After a moment Tyler looked back noticing that Josh had stopped walking, shaking his head slightly he reached back and grabbed Josh's sleeve. Tyler watched as Josh smiled to himself, thinking that his flirting must be working. Tyler mentally patted himself on the back.  
It was a cold night by the time they finally made it to the funeral home. Tyler zipped his skeleton hoodie up over his face hoping that it would protect him from the harsh wind. Josh was beside him, he couldn't see much of his face but could tell by the squint of his eyes that he was excited too. They're around the back of the building, checking each of the windows to see if any were unlocked  
"You got the camera ready?" Tyler asked  
"Yea I-"  
"You talk too much" Tyler interrupted impatiently, having managed to wedge the window open.  
Kneeling down he riffled through his backpack, triumphantly holding up a balaclava to Josh,  
"They won't know it's you." Tyler tells him nodding, "You can take it off when you're ready."  
Josh obeys, removing his cap and pulling the balaclava over his head, he then placed his cap on top. Tyler took a moment to smile at him.  
"Right, so I'm gonna need you to record everything and then I can edit it down later for the vines"  
Once Josh had the camera set up and ready they clambered through the window, not too concerned about stealth. The room they landed in seemed to be a family viewing room, there's a central table complete with coffin, cushioned seats lining one of the walls. The fabric is garish but floral so Tyler didn't mind it. He looked around the room, now that he's here he realized that he hadn't really planned beyond getting in.  
"I need drama man, I wish I could do a backflip off of the coffin or something"  
Josh silently held out the camera which Tyler took in confusion, he continued to climb onto the table and backflip off. Josh is fucking cool you guys.  
Tyler squealed in delight, flapping his arms for emphasis. He stops only when they hear the distant sounds of what seems to be metal scraping against the floor.  
"Jish! Did you hear that?" Tyler asked turning away and ignoring Josh.  
Cautiously they moved across the room, the noise had stopped and Tyler couldn't hear anything as he pressed his ear against the door. Opening it as quietly as possible, they peered out into the hallway, it was dark and silent.  
"Are you still recording?"  
Josh nodded in response, his eyes wide. Tyler led them down the corridor, pausing for effect every few steps. They quickly came to another door, the nameplate reading simply 'mortuary', with a deep breath Tyler turned the handle and walked in.

"Good morning!" came cheerfully from a man? Man. Who was crouched over a corpse that was lying on a steel table in the middle of the room. He was smiling up at them, the effect unnerving as blood began to drip down his chin. Shit, Tyler cohesively thought.  
"Excuse me? We're just gonna leave" said Tyler, his voice sounding much higher than usual. Reaching back he gripped Josh's hand tightly.  
"Wait, no, stay, I just brewed some tea and honestly? I'm a little lonely"  
"That's what they all say" Josh replied laughing, Tyler turned his head so fast it hurt to stare at the boy in disbelief.  
Josh walked in past Tyler, positioning himself on a stool by the window, while Gerard looked expectantly back at Tyler waving a teabag in his direction.  
"Come on, I'll get you some sugar, you need it, you look like you've had a scare" Gerard said in a tone that Tyler was sure was supposed to be reassuring, but didn't quite do the trick.  
"Hey, is it uncool of me to ask why you were drinking that guys blood?" Josh asked in a mildly curious tone.  
"Nah man, I'm actually a vampire. Do you guys want any cookies with the tea? I've got some oreos somewhere around here"  
"Um, sure"  
"You two look awesome, I like your masks, and your red hair is sick! It looks like a comic book character. Oh hey look what I can do!" Gerard said excitedly before walking back over to where the abandoned corpse was lying, lowering his mouth to its neck.  
"Ah man, I think I'm gonna be sick" Tyler complained stepping back.  
When Gerard lifted his head once more his greasy hair was bright red.  
"Cool right? If I drink lots my hair changes color, apparently if I'm starved it will turn white, but I haven't yet had that pleasure."  
"That's SICK, we match!” After pausing for a moment he continues “You just drink from corpses right? No live kids?" Josh asked as though he wasn't really bothered by the answer, Tyler watched him warily. He found it easier to just watch Josh, and ignore how surreal this whole thing was.

 

Tyler couldn't help but feel they were being held hostage.  
"This is so much fun!" Josh exclaimed after hours of Josh and Gerard feeding off of each others enthusiasm. All of the surfaces have been slowly building up with empty teacups, Josh had gotten redbulls out of god knows where and Tyler was slowly relaxing in the presence of the vampire. He couldn't help think that anyone who could make Josh smile that much wasn't all that scary. It helped that everytime Tyler tensed in nervousness Josh would reach over and scratch his head.  
So it was with Josh lying stretched out on one of the vacant steel tables, Tyler with his legs tucked up under him on a stool, leaning as close to Josh as possible and Gerard brewing yet another pot of tea that Ray and Frank walked in.  
"Guys I made friends!" Gerard immediately called out in excitement.


	3. Boys Protect Boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Petes POV

Pete checked his phone again, he wasn't very good at technology but Patrick had assured him that the map on it could direct them accurately to the funeral home.  
"Pete relax, I can feel your vibrating from over here" Patrick said floating closer to grasp his hand reassuringly  
"They could already have him Patrick! This is my fault! How are you so calm?"  
"Oh I don't know, something about not having a body helps, I think your shaking is actually exasperating your anxiety." Patrick replied cooly, "But this isn't your fault, you told him to lay low, you left him in trusted hands. I've got you, you are good and fine Pete Wentz."  
Pete let Patrick rub circles into this back and concentrated on his kind face, "Right, we're gonna fix this"  
Smoothing down his shirt Pete turned on the ignition and started towards the funeral home. After a silent ride there, Pete and Patrick stepped out of the car and cautiously walked up the path towards the building.  
"I'll go ahead and check the situation out okay?" Patrick said stroking Petes cheek reassuringly  
"I don't feel good about this"  
"Stop, they can't do anything to me, I'll be right back" With that Patrick floated through the front door leaving Pete to kick the gravel on path. By the time Patrick returned Pete had created a nice, even circle of gravel-free path, Patrick rolled his eyes looking down at the destruction.  
"They're not here! Gerard's with Ray and three other guys but they're all human" Patrick explained visibly relieved  
Petes mask of worry dropped, instantly replaced with an ecstatic smile "This is wonderful Trick! Don't you see how wonderful this is?"  
"I do. Come on, I didn't show myself so we should go in and say hi"

 

Once inside they quickly made their way to the mortuary,  
"Gerard!" Pete boomed upon opening the door, "Sweet child of mine! Oh look how you've grown! Look Patrick, hasn't he grown? Let me see that beautiful face" Pete said all but running to grasp Gerard's face between his two hands, Gerard giggled in delight.  
Looking at the confused looks coming from the humans in the room Patrick explained "He can't really grow, he's dead, Pete's just excited. He's Gerard's maker"  
"Trick! I can't believe you would say that!" Pete exclaimed covering his hands over Gerard's ears, who was gradually trying to wiggle backwards out of his grip.  
Pete finally let go, leaving Gerard with an absent minded pat on the head, then turning to look over the humans in the room,  
"Hi Ray! He's being good for you I hope?"  
"I don't think he knows how to not be good" Ray replied ruefully.  
Letting his eyes rest on the two kids he hadn't seen before Pete decided quickly that they looked harmless enough, though were both staring at Patrick with mouths agape, Patrick simply sent them his sweetest smile.  
Barely audibly one of the boys whispered "he's so sweet"  
"Is everything I know wrong?" One of the boys asked the room in a sweet voice. The others big brown eyes looked at him affectionately before turning to Pete,  
"Who are you guys?"  
"Well I'm Gerard's dad. I'm a vampire and this is my boyfriend Patrick, he's a very cute ghost" Pete answered kindly  
"I'm Tyler and this is my best friend Josh" For reasons unknown to Pete this statement made Josh blush and smile coyly.  
For the first time Pete noticed a small figure standing behind Gerard, he wasn't sure how he hadn't seen him since the boy had a faux mohawk with dyed red shaved sides, he was biting his lip and looking up at Gerard as though Gerard can protect him.  
Once under Petes gaze the boy stepped forward "Er I'm frank, I work here." As soon as he spoke aloud he seemed to grow visibly more confident, Pete was now sure he could protect himself.  
"Frank! Lovely frank hello-"  
"Right well we're actually here because of a serious matter." Patrick said interrupting swiftly,  
"We are?"  
Patrick looked over at Pete with an expression that could only be described as exasperation "We still need to warn him Pete?"  
"Oh, sorry, I was just excited to see my boy!" Pete straightens himself, a grim expression falling over his face, "Gerard, Ray. Patrick overheard something while he was hanging out in the under realm. So you know what I said about laying low, not eating live humans? Have you done anything... bad?"  
Gerard looked genuinely startled, "No? I stay here, I don't really go out except to look at the stars at night and sometimes check out the late night comic book store" he turns to the others "people don't really suspect a greasy kid with really pale skin in there, even if they see my fangs they just think I'm cosplaying" he explained with a shrug,  
"Okay, well some things happened, I don't know how but the demons know you're here" Patrick told him gravely.  
All of the red faded out of Gerard's hair "bad?"  
"bad."  
"Wait a minute man, demons? Bad? What’s gonna happen?" Frank asked squaring his shoulders,  
"Well we vampires hide from the demons, it’s messy, we're dead and technicalllly evil spirits so they should take us but we're in some ways alive, therefore not free game. They want to take us and they will if they get any excuse. That means, if we kill or do anything judged as irredeemably bad the demons will hunt us," Pete explained, taking a breath before continuing "or if we look at them the wrong way frankly"  
Gerard sat down heavily, looking like he might just throw up. Frank slid down next to him muttering something and patting his hand. Pete smiled to himself thinking that maybe everything would be okay.  
"We'll help protect him!" Josh declared, standing up. Behind him Tylers mouth was hanging open, he seemed to be trying to stare a hole into the back of Josh's head.  
"Huh, okay yes, as darling Josh just decided we will."  
Josh merely glanced at Tyler and smirked. Frank stood up at such speed that his chair fell backwards,  
"Me to, no one gets to Gerard."  
"Right okay, I'm not sure how you guys think you're gonna achieve this, you did hear the words Demons didn't you?" Patrick said looking over them skeptically but then sighed, smiling a tiny smile.  
"Of course! We've got your back Gerard! I'll kill them all!" Pete exclaimed with a wide grin that seemed to unnerve Tyler.  
"I'm in, this dude means too much to me" Ray said walking over and ruffling Gerard's head,  
"Salt! Lots of salt!" Pete all but shouted at the room.

 

After an hour the entrances were lined with salt, all corpses and furniture had been pushed against the walls.  
Frank had fashioned a weapon out of a thick sheet of metal attached to a chain, he had explained that he would swing it at the demons. Ray found this statement unsettling. Josh and Tyler had on tinfoil hats that Josh promised would help somehow, and everyone had all the knives and scalpels they could find.  
They sat in the middle of the room in a circle, having all begun facing outwards pulling menacing expressions but within ten minutes were lying about telling each other stories.  
"Yea, so I'd just gotten back on that day, 9/11, feeling like I needed to do something, you know, really be alive? Got off the train and ran into this fucker" Gerard said smiling towards Pete.  
"He was really drunk that night" Patrick supplied unhappily,  
"In my defence, this boy looks like he was born to be a vampire" Pete smiled gesturing to Gerard.  
"Yea that's what he said when he bit me" Gerard said laughing as he lay back so that his head could rest in Franks lap.  
Pete had begun begging Ray to let him plait his hair and Josh was eating jelly babies that he had found god knows where when Tyler's phone began to vibrate.  
"Geez my phone is blowing up" Tyler sighed getting it out of his backpack "ah!" After staring silently at his phone for a minute he looked up at Josh "I thought we would be best friends, but I did not know that we would be playing sold out arenas"  
"What?" Josh smiled indulging him,  
"Our vine blew up Jish!"  
"Oh sweet!"  
"Can we see it?" Ray asked,  
After the group had been shown the video of Josh doing a backflip off of a coffin Pete muttered "eh its kinda lame"  
"What!" Tyler exclaimed in shock "Josh is amazing!"  
The group shared a mutual look of humour while Tyler ignored them.  
"Okay!" Tyler burst out with, "I need the toilet! I'll just quickly go and be right back"  
"Wan me to come with you? Josh asked looking concerned,  
"No, you enjoy your jelly babies Jish"  
After about five minutes Tyler returned and the group let out a collective breath.  
"What? I just needed to pee"  
"I know, we're just glad you're okay" Patrick smiled.

 

About more two hours pass before anything of interest happened besides Pete burping really loudly before getting told off by Patrick. Just as Tyler was falling asleep leaning against Josh a loud bang came from the door.  
"We're here for the vampire known as Gerard Way. Hand yourself over and make it easier on yourself" Came an authoritative voice through that door as someone on the other side pushed it open.   
"Heh! You won't be able to get in, we lined the room with salt!" Pete called out.  
A tall figure wearing a tailored blue suit appeared at the open door, raising an eyebrow, stepping over the salt. Shocked, Pete looked closer and noticed the line had been broken.  
"Tyler you must have knocked it" Pete said sighing  
Josh wrapped an arm protectively around Tyler as another figure followed the tall one into the room, a wide grin spread across his face.  
"Oh for fucks sake! Brendon, Dallon what the shit are you doing here?" Pete asked in relief having recognised the new comers.  
"We're here to take your child Pete" Dallon explained seeming confused,  
"Well we knew that" Patrick sighed "you got us worried for no good reason"  
"What! No! Well you can't have him, I'll take you out!" Frank yelled out, tiny face full of fury,  
"Don't worry Frank, Gerard's safe, these guys are harmless" Patrick said patting Frank reassuringly.  
Frank was now practically sitting in Gerard's lap trying to protect him, Gerard didn't seem to mind.  
"Harmless! We're demons! Aren't we Dal, hey Dal aren't we!" Brendon exclaimed looking to his boyfriend to back him up, Dallon just rolled his eyes "Oh wow your hair is so cool human boy!"  
Josh squirmed slightly under Brendon's enthusiastic gaze.  
"Wait! I know you! And you! You did that vine where you threw yourself into a trash can and spun off. Shit thats so cool!" Dallon practically yelled.  
Tyler smiled pointedly to the group.


	4. Boys Are Persuasive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drifts between Franks, (briefly) Patricks, Tylers and Petes POV. I know, head-hopping, very unprofessional, bad writing technique, sorry! I can't change it now!

"You all know that I'm going to have to take Gerard right?" Dallon asked sighing and gazing around at the group from where he was sitting cross-legged. Everyone was sitting in a circle again.  
"Right of course." Pete said smiling at him leisurely,  
"Oh, Right. Great. Come on Gerard" Dallon said getting to his feet,  
Pete laughed just as Frank jumped to his feet,  
"Like hell you are" Frank spats out, reaching behind him to brandish his home-made weapon.  
"I'm literally a demon, do you not get that?" Dallon asked him looking wearily at the metal sheet,  
"Yeah and I'm pissed!" Frank grunted through gritted teeth stepping forward and squaring his shoulders,  
"Yea go on Dal! square up to the boy who reaches your navel" Brendon mocked from his position leaning forward on his haunches,  
"Fine, well at least give Gerard the night with us before his eternal damnation" Pete called out to Dallon,  
"What? That's not my job."  
"Dalllllooooon, have some funnnnn, my boy josh has like 50 redbulls. We can take him in the morning" Brendon whined, now on all fours face leaning up like a cat asking to be petted. Dallon seemingly without noticing reached a hand out and placed it on Brendons head.  
"Okay, you have one night Gerard." Dallon sighed looking troubled.  
From the other side of the room Gerard stared out blankly, shifting his weight from side to side.  
"One night! Pete! I thought!-" Frank whispered harshly, having walked over and sat down facing Gerard, his heart beating fast. He felt as though his body is sinking through the floor. Eyes trailing across Gerards innocent face Frank breathing in harshly.  
"Frank, Gerard. Hey Gerard are you okay? Focus on me here" Patrick leaned across talking in hushed tones "You're not going, Pete is just pandering to Dallon. The more we humour him, the easier it will be to persuade him to see our side. We have no intention of letting anything bad happen to you."  
"What's it like down there Patrick?" Gerards eyes were still unfocused, unseeing,  
"Its, bad. Okay? It's bad, but not your problem. You're gonna stay here and make tea and help out ray and lounge around with Frank, me and Pete will come over more. We'll all sit around and laugh at Pete, I promise. You are safe, I am here, Frank's here."  
Gerard let out a high-pitched squeak. Frank had lunged forward, grabbing Gerard tight around the middle, face buried in his hair.  
After watching them for a moment Patrick got up smiling to himself, with every intention of giving Dallon winning smiles and persuasive words, only to find that Dallon, Tyler and Josh were slipping into one of the refrigerators. Concerned he stepped closer,  
"So we're doing a 24 hour night challenge" Tyler whispered into a camera as he pulled the door closed on them, Patrick cast a glance around the room to see if anyone else has noticed this monstrosity. Brendon was sat cross-legged, a shark like grin on his face.  
"What are they doing?" Patrick sighed  
"Becoming friends" Brendon patted the floor beside him, it's unappealing but Patrick sat. "Let them be, here have a redbull or two with me"  
"Dallon really thinks we're going to let you guys take Gerard doesn't he?" Patrick asked,  
"Ah, yea, poor thing. He's so confused, a sweetie really though" Brendon said laying back and arranging his arms under his head.  
"do u think frank or dallon would win in a fight?" Pete asked as he sits, joining them,  
"Frank" both said in unison.

 

"Are you doing okay?" Gerard gently asked  
"Me? I should be asking you" Frank sighed  
"I trust Pete and Patrick"  
"But why? How can you trust the person, vampire who took your life away?"  
"Ah, I joked about it earlier but I really do feel better off as a vampire. When I was alive, I was terrified, nothing was working out. I was angry, so angry Frank."  
"I'm angry"  
"I can see that, you're this little ball of fire"  
"Carry on telling me about yourself please"  
"Okay, well, I was in a bad way, depressed, I never changed my clothes. I stunk and I was always drunk or high. My dreams weren't working out, I just wasn't made to kick around in a dead end job. I had these night terrors, everything, it was wrong. I was this clawing, spitting mess."  
Frank sat listening with rapt attention,  
"So when I woke up? Dead? It was a dream come true" seeing Franks expression Gerard gave him a grim smile "I'm sorry. It is better for me though."  
"Don't you miss anything?"  
"Mikey. I miss my little brother, that kills me"  
"Why don't you see him?"  
"Like this?" Gerard looked shocked but Franks expression was so earnest that he paused "Well it would freak him out, he grieved me Frank."  
"And you don't think he wants you back? You don't think he would give anything to see you alive or vampire?"  
"Yes, of course, well, I don't know."  
"Gerard. We are getting through this and then we are going to find Mikey."  
"Okay" Gerard spoke in a small voice.  
After a while of sitting in comfortable silence Frank found that he was tired, he could feel it in the pressure building behind his forehead and nose. When the room started tilting he couldn't find it in himself to question anything, he simply laid his head down on the closest soft thing, his eyes closing with the weight of it all. 

 

Tyler looked from Dallons smiling face to Gerard who was curled up in the corner of the room with Frank half laying on top of him. He wasn’t sure why but he founds that he didn't feel so weary of the vampires, even the demons, (fucking demons!) didn't really seem so bad. He really did feel that protecting the vampire was the morally right decision to make, if Dallon was even a threat at all? That however didn't stop him from feeling anxious, his good mood having worn off.  
"Jish" Tyler whispered shuffling closer still sitting on the linoleum floor,  
"Yeah?" Josh was smiling at him indulgently,  
"You know we have school in the morning?"  
Josh only warranted that with a scoff.  
"Okay, right well" Tyler stopped, not really knowing what to say. He could feel a headache blooming behind his eyebrows.  
"Hey man, school can wait, I really want to help these guys." but then Joshes eyes softened "But if you're really feeling bad, we can leave. I've got your back Tyler."  
Tyler could feel the bad thoughts pressing the sides of his head. It felt as though the fluorescent light was brighter, the floor beneath him harder, he shuffled himself uncomfortably. He was wearing too much, it was too much, he stripped his hoodie off, the act making him break a slight sweat. Instead of taking Josh on his offer, instead of even taking a step outside to calm his senses, Tyler steeled himself, eyes sharpening.  
"You're right, they need us. I can deal man" He offered a small smile in hopes of convincing Josh that he really didn't need any help.  
He distantly realised that he was wilfully pushing himself beyond his capabilities, punishing himself for reasons unknown. He could feel Josh watching him, eyes unsure.  
Tyler busied himself with his skeleton hoodie that was sitting in his lap, zipping and unzipping it.  
tap tap tap tap tap  
Tyler looked up wildly. Josh was tapping out a beat with his fingers against the floor, it was upbeat but Tyler couldn't help but feel it was egging him on. He wanted to go, go, go. His zipping became more frantic, until joshes hand laid itself on his, stilling the movement.  
"Take a sip of this drink, just focus, take a little sip, pause, take another, go slow okay man?" Josh tells him handing him a water bottle.  
Tyler followed his instructions, carefully breathing evening out.  
"It sucks man, I'm not gonna have my drums for at least a week after this"  
"You play drums? That’s sick! I play piano and write lyrics" Tyler found himself smiling despite the heaviness in his stomach "Do your parents hold your drums hostage when you break the rules?" Josh nodded. "I'm sorry, is it usually a week?"  
"Nah, once my mum found my stash of like twenty CDs that were hidden under my mattress and I was banned from drumming for a month." 

 

Pete was perched straddling the corner of one of the steel tables, Patrick sitting beside him, he could feel his presence but his whole concentration was focused on Dallon and Brendon who were standing in front of him.  
"You should go hang out today, there’s loads of fun stuff to do around here and we'd miss you if you left too soon, it’s been like a hundred years man. Don't make me wait a hundred more" Pete had been trying to convince Dallon and Brendon to stay for long enough to have given him a headache. He could feel the sun rising, slowly clouding his head.   
"I could take you! I'm sure Josh and Tyler would be up for it too? A day out!" Patrick said in his most charming voice. It worked, it always worked.  
With the help of Brendons enthusiasm for any plan based on having fun they decided to stay for the day and hang out.  
"Hey kid" Pete said softly crouching down next to Gerard a few minutes later, "Lets get you to bed, I'll sleep in the fridge next to you tonight"  
"We're sleeping here?" Pete could see a silent question in Gerard's eyes  
"We're safe. Patrick and the mortals are going to stay and entertain the demons, who themselves have promised not to try and take you in the day time." 

 

Tyler could feel his spirits lift as they walked out of the foyer into the bright sunshine, all of the weight that had been clinging to him, pulling on his limbs, fogging him mind, dispersed. He tilted his face towards the sunlight and took a breath.  
Nights were always bad. It was as much a fact as Tyler being good at basketball was. He supposed that befriending a vampire wasn't his best choice considering. But in fairness there were much more obvious factors weighing against that decision.  
Patrick had turned invisible before they set off, so as to not spook any mortals. Brendon had a tight grip on Dallons hand and was currently swinging back and forth so high it swung above them.  
Tyler shivered, he could feel a pressure against him but when he looked to Josh he seemed completely oblivious,  
"Hey" a voice said very close to his ear,  
"Patrick?" Tyler whipped his head around, nose suddenly feeling like it was being dipped in ice-cream.  
"You have your nose in my neck" Patrick said quiet as a breath "I don't mind. What I wanted to tell you though was the plan"  
Tyler could feel his eyebrows raising,  
"We're going to convince these guys that they should stay on earth with us. That they don't need to take Gerard back because they don't want to go back"  
"And how are we going to do that?" Tyler whispered in this quietest voice, Josh looked at him curiously.  
"We're going bowling!"  
Tyler didn't have the heart to tell him that a dank bowling alley was hardly the most alluring prospect, he was sceptical that two supernatural demons would be all that impressed.

 

Brendon loved the bowling alley.  
They had walked into town, arriving to find a single car in the carpark, no doubt an employee. It turned out that no one else had been tempted to bowl at 9am in the morning. The front of the building looked a little worse for wear, concrete breaking apart in places to allow weeds through.   
They were now sitting at long brightly-coloured cushioned benches squashing their feet into questionable bowling shoes.  
Brendon tapped his feet against the floor in excitement. "I look great! These shoes make me want to dance! Is that what you do here? I love the neon lights!"  
Dallon had paused his attempt to tie his own shoes in favour of smiling fondly at Brendon. His legs were so long that in this position he looked much like a spider.  
Once the tired greasy-haired employee had turned his back on them in favour of spraying bowling shoes and flipping through a comic of sorts, Patrick materialised.  
"Jesus man!" Josh jumped,  
"You walked right into me a minute ago, but do you see me yelling? Relax" Patrick smiled mischievously at him,  
"Ah sweet Patrick" Brendon beamed.

 

Franks day mostly consisted of naps and coffees, Ray seemed to still have the energy of ten men and picked up the slack. Every time Frank protested Ray talked him down, ushering him to a seat with a look in his eyes. Almost like sympathy but Frank couldn't make sense of that, considering that Ray is in the same boat.  
At about 10.30am a knock came from the door, Frank stiffened, there was absolutely no reason anyone would need to come in here. His eyes lingered on Gerard's fridge door.  
"Hey Frank, help me out here" Ray called through the door.  
Relaxing Frank uncurled and rushed over to the door, Ray was standing in the corridor awkwardly holding an armchair. Stepping aside Ray waddled in and placed it on the floor.  
"I stole it from the family viewing room, they can stand" Ray explained as he pushed the chair across the room to where the tea station was. "We've been perched uncomfortably all night, may as well make use of what we've got."  
"Rad!" Frank said, thinking longingly about sitting in comfort. Though couldn’t help but think this must have be breaking like 10 protocols, but reasoned that harbouring two vampires was probably worse.  
"Come help me get a second one and then we can take a break and have some coffee"  
Frank hadn't been working so there was nothing for him to take a break from but he complied regardless. Once two chairs were sitting at an angle to each other Frank busied himself with making two cups of tea.  
"Thankfully we haven't had any new corpses come in today, if we're lucky it'll stay that way" Ray said taking a seat and sighing heavily,  
"That’s ominous"  
"You'll get used to it once you've worked here for a while" Ray said laughing.

 

Tyler found himself sitting next to Dallon in a booth, everyone had decided to get cheesy fries and cokes after their first game of bowling, which Josh had won spectacularly. Tyler was secretly very proud of him.  
"Hey, you know I'm under orders right? I'm not just stealing souls for kicks." Dallon said after Tyler tensed when Dallon shifted in the seat beside him.  
"Well not really, I don't know much about anything that's going on" Tyler replied frankly.  
Josh, Patrick and Brendon were squashed into the other side of the booth. But they didn't seem to be listening, Patrick was laughing as Brendon practically vibrated, taking up most of the space.  
"It tickles! Please Brendon, get out of my arm!" Patrick squealed, Josh seemed to find this hilarious.  
Tyler focused back on Dallon, he found him smiling calmly.  
"Sorry, I don't spend much time with mortals, I forget that you don't have any reason to know our politics"  
"I didn't know that you existed until a few hours ago" Dallon gave him a weird look at that but seemed to think better than to comment.  
"Well, okay, if me and Bren go back to the other realm without Gerard we'll be punished" Dallon shivered "So you see, this is out of my hands"  
"So, you couldn't just, not go back?"  
"No we" Dallon stopped himself mid-sentence looking thoughtful "I don't know" he said after a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait from the last chapter, I was staying with a friend in England so me and Sarah couldn't work on it easily! (If you didn't know, me and my sister write and illustrate this together, though you can only see the illustrations on WattPad)
> 
> While writing this I spilt coffee on my fresh white shirt and was desperately tired on a series of four trains so please forgive me?  
> Lets also pretend that my fatigue didn't transfer onto the characters in this chapter


	5. Boys Hide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Franks POV

It was nightfall by the time they returned, Frank had been sitting for the past hour waiting impatiently for something to happen. Gerard wasn't awake yet and Ray had gone home for some much-deserved rest.

"Change of plan!" Brendon called out running into the room, somehow simultaneously shimmying. The door slammed against the wall from him barging through, "We're going, come on!" A shit-eating grin was across his face.

"Wait, what the fuck?"

"We've decided to stay! Now get the fuck up! We need to get out of here now!"

"But Gerard? And Pete-"

"Come oooooon" Brendon stretched the word, waving his arms at the door.

Frank tried his best to take a deep breath "You'd better be fucking joking, I am not leaving them"

"Oh you're not?" Brendon lifted his eyebrows, taking a step forward.

"You fucking bet" Frank matched his step forward.

Restraint breaking Frank launched himself at Brendon, nails scratching at his face. He felt Brendons arms reach around his waist and lift him up. Still trying to catch any part of Brendon that would hurt, Frank kicked and snarled. They both fell back onto the ground but Frank barely notices.

"Oh for fucks sake Brendon" Dallon said loud enough to break through the ringing in Franks ears. Looking up he could see that Brendon was, laughing?

Frank wasn't getting any calmer being laughed at.

"You were supposed to tell him to get ready, not fight him. Stop being a dick and get up" Dallon said calmly.

Brendon looked up from his position on the floor and started fake sobbing, Frank glanced to the group who have just walked in to see if anyone else has a clue as to what's going on.

Brendon proceeded to flop himself back, wailing whilst slyly eyeing Dallon for his reaction.

"Just ignore him, he'll wear himself out." Dallon reassured the group, walking past Brendon who was now crawling over to one of the armchairs, still fake crying. He seemed to have been possessed by a wild playfulness that Frank did not care for one bit.

"Hey, what's been happening?" Pete asked through a yawn, opening his fridge door wide and stretching.

Frank, calming down, picked himself up and made his way over to Gerard who was also sleepily exiting the fridge.

"Ah, I had a change of heart." Dallon turned and started to explain, "Me and Brendon have decided that we might well stay. But, if that is the case, then we need to get out of here. We've already taken longer than our mission was allotted, so someone will come looking soon"

"and like fuck am I gonna stand around and wait for them" Brendon interjected, miraculously no longer a sobbing mess,

"Exactly."

"Oh, wonderful! This is wonderful!" Pete grinned broadly at Patrick who had floated over whilst everyone had been talking.

A few hours later they were all crammed into a minibus, Pete had already had it rented out. To this Dallon had raised an eyebrow but stayed silent. Frank was sitting in the back, wanting as much distance from Brendon as possible. "confusing dumb fuck"

"What?" Gerard asked turning to him, having heard his mumble.

Frank ignored this, getting his phone out instead to ring Ray and explain the situation. After a short sleepy conversation where Ray was as chill as ever about it all and told him that his internship would be waiting for him when he returns, Frank promised to keep him up to date. Hanging up he told Pete that he had the green light to leave and they set off.

 

Morning was nearing by the time they reached San Francisco, Frank only woke up as the van was coming to a stop. Now lifting his head from Gerards shoulder and looking out of the open window he knew immediately which building is the one they're headed to.

Pete had said something very vague about having a plan and a vampire safe space. Well, Frank thought that this place looks exactly like its inhabitants are vampires.

It was made of huge black blocks, much like polished coal, each block sitting crooked in its own way. Frank found this fascinating, as he looked up and down the street, eyes again resting on the tall building in front of him. It was nothing like the surrounding buildings, mostly victorian terrace houses, looking as though it had been transplanted from somewhere in Europe. It stood slanted and veering out as though the upper floors were attempting to reach across the road and kiss the opposite buildings.  
Right, this is it, Frank told himself. He had never been one to be intimidated, even if this building did seem to be emitting strong 'stay the fuck away vibes'.

Sat between two large protruding display windows there was a rotting door, black paint peeling away from the wood. It was slightly ajar, kept from closing by what looks like a breeze block. Surrounding it were cardboard boxes full of indecipherable junk and various stone statues.

"Billy! Hey Billy!" Pete called out, pushing the door open further and leading the way inside.

What had seemed out of place from the exterior proved only to be more bizarre inside.   
"They're in here somewhere" Pete told the group confidently. No one else said a word.

The shop was crammed high with antiques and objects that Frank secretly thought looked like trash. Light fittings hung from the ceiling, there was everything from glass chandeliers to colanders affixed with light bulbs. Besides these there hung assorted dining chairs, upside down and fixed with wire.

"Did you see that?" Gerard asked in a breath, leaning forward to Franks ear

Frank shook his head, looking around them carefully,

"What?"

"Probably nothing, I just thought I saw someone moving behind the wardrobe over there" Gerard said pointing into the depths of the furniture.

Frank thought to himself that it didn't seem all that odd to notice other people walking around a shop but something in Gerard's tone of voice dissuaded him from saying so.

The path in front of them was narrow, with the furniture and objects lining the walkway looking as though they want to crawl forwards and close the space. Deep within the towers of antiques Frank could just about make out lamps, dotted at random, all of them turned on. Their light making paths between the objects, causing them to glow.

More mysterious than any of this however, is how the space didn't feel at all claustrophobic despite having every reason to.

It seemed to Frank that they had been walking for a long time, longer than seemed sensible for the inside of a high street shop. The path had been twisting and turning, at points even forking out into several other paths. Pete however had been walking with purpose, calling out at random.

"Billy!" Pete calls, dragging out the name as he calls for the eighth time,

"Is that Pete I hear?" Came a response from somewhere nearby.

"I think that it probably is" came another agreeable voice.

"You're both right!" Pete yelled swinging himself around the corner of the path, past a tall bookshelf that groaned as he grasped the side of it for leverage.

Curious, Frank walked faster to turn the corner and found himself in front of three vampires, it's very obvious that that is what they were. Pete had his back to him and was leaning across a desk to enthusiastically hug a dark haired vampire. Another of the vampires was standing to the side looking very amused.

"Holy crapping hell!" Brendon all but screamed from behind him

Frank turned to see him grinning from ear to ear,

"Billy Armstrong! Fuck!" the last word coming out as a ringing high note.

Frank turned back again to see which of the vampires Bendon was so taken by, it seemed to be the man that Pete had just released.

"Hey man, be cool" Pete said in a low voice

"No, no, don't worry about me." Billy's eyebrows were lifted high, making his statement not quite ring true.

Brendon stepped around the group, shifting himself to the front. Dallon following closely.

"Ah. A demon." Billy looked the picture of calm but was staring at Pete

"Er, yeah, well you see, I have a favour to ask of you"

"Yeah can I have your autograph?" Brendon interjected excitedly.

"No!" Pete said under his breath, going over to stand in front of Brendon, "My boy here Gee has the demons after him, we managed to convince these two" Pete Gesturing to Dallon and Brendon, the later of whom was currently being scribbled on by the three vampires with black-markers. "Um, yea, to turn to our side, but now we all need a safe place to hide? I was hoping that you would be accomodating?"

"Yea, thats a no." Billy said leaning around Brendon who had now had his top pulled off and was being covered in crude drawings, to his delight.

"Hey Billy" Patrick said floating to the front of the group,

"Patrick, sweet Patrick!" Billy exclaimed distracted by the ghost.

"I promise you that if you would let us stay, no harm would come to or your kin. Also I brought a tonne of weed for you" Patrick said, holding out a bag to everyones shock.

"PATRICK! How did you get that!" Pete gasped in horror.

Billy smiled widely stepping forward to pat patrick on the back and take the bag of weed "Anything for you kid."

Whilst everyone else was distracted Frank observed the vampires who he was apparently now going to be living with. Billy was white and bloodless which was a stark contrast to this black ruffled hair, attire and black-ringed eyes. Of the two others, one of whom he would later find out to be Mike, had a narrow, fine-boned deathly pale face. The other Trè was eerily already watching Frank as he turned his attention to him, eyes wide and lips upturned. Uncomfortable he cast his gaze to a dusty cupboard and attempted to compare their vampiric faces to Gerards fleshy cheeks and warm eyes. However they were incomparable, Frank wondered whether if this was what Gerard would become in years to come and then shook his head knowing that nothing would diminish Gerards sweetness.

"Well I never thought I'd see the night I'd meet you Billy" Brendon said loudly, breaking Franks train of thought.

 

Sometime later they were all sitting in the dim room listening to Billy explain his many run-ins with demons. It had been established that Billy was thousands of years old, having admitted himself that he had forgotten his age and shared remembrances of living in a cave. He had evaded discovery all of this time and served as somewhat of a father-figure to all vampire kind. Dallon seemed equally as excited as Brendon, though more demurely, to meet who he announced to be a legend.

Gerard quietly gots up from his position sitting beside Frank, everyone was too absorbed in conversation to notice as Gerard tapped Franks shoulder and gestured that they leave the room.

"I'm tired of listening and thinking about all of that now" Gerard told him as they found themselves in a corridor "I want to find somewhere quiet for the daytime"

They had been told grandly that they were to choose any room they wished, the only ones occupied currently being in the attic rooms.

The corridor was long and narrow, only reiterating Franks earlier assessment that this building must be magically altered in some way. It didn't make sense otherwise.

The walls were panelled with wood and adorned with assorted paintings. Gerard seemed to find these fascinating but Frank was much too tired to pay attention and simply watched Gerard slowly make his way along, walking up to each painting and inspecting it carefully. He supposed that Gerard can't have seen much of anything since he had been turned and that as fascinating as Frank finds this place, Gerard must find it doubly so.   
"I would like to paint you" Gerard told Frank earnestly

"Oh" Frank couldn't think of a reply and Gerard didn't wait for one, distracted as he was by a painting of a soldier holding the reigns of a distressed horse. Frank did pay attention for long enough to notice that the soldier in question looked eerily like Billy Joe himself.

Soon enough they were stood in front of a winding narrow staircase, it looked battered and seemed to creek with its own weight but Gerard paid it no mind. "I don't want to stay upstairs"

"Do you think there are any bedrooms down here?"

"Let's find out"

As they walked they opened doors and peered inside, adjoining to this corridor were two storage cupboards, a small dated bathroom with only a toilet inside and a room that seemed to be being used as a study. There was one last door, at the end of the corridor.

"This'll be it, my bedroom, I can tell"

Frank stared at the wooden door, "Or it could be another bathroom"

They soon discovered that it was neither, it was, in fact, the kitchen. The room had twice the height of the others they had been in, a cavernous space with tall windows and gleaming tiles. Frank could tell that someone loved this space, it was in much better repair than anything else they had come across and the appliances all looked new.   
Though what use a vampire would have for a kitchen Frank didn't know.

Turning to smile triumphantly at Gerard he found him across the room walking through a doorway that looked as though it should lead out into the garden.

"Hey, d'you wanna sleep in the fridge? It'll make you feel at home!" Frank asked giggling and catching up with Gerard.

"No. I'm sure this'll do" Gerard replied cheerfully looking into what is not the garden but a conservatory, or greenhouse, Frank's wasn't sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I definitely wrote Green day as 'Green boy' in the first draft, sorry  
> we'd love to hear any comments please!
> 
> I also just went back and changed all of the chapters to past tense as it flows better, I'm sorry if that confused anyone or if you found both tenses bc i messed up or something? please point out mistakes so that we can change them!


	6. Boys are Bats

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tylers POV

The shower was mercifully hot. Despite needing it he felt too tired to wash his hair, lethargy seeping through his heavy limbs as he attempted to lift his arms up for the shampoo bottle. 

he couldn't help feel that something was, off. something didn't make, sense. But Tyler was damned if he knew what. 

Steam trailing behind him he walked into the bedroom that he and josh now shared. The twin beds were much alike but Tyler felt safer farther away from the door and had said so to Josh. So there dutifully waiting he was, sitting on the bed closest to the door, Tyler noticed that he too was fidgeting, despite having a smile on his face.

"Hey man, are you okay?" 

"Er, yeah, I mean? I'm fine? Something just feels a little..." Josh said waving his hands around meaningfully. Somehow, Tyler understood.

"Me too"

Josh nodded and made his way to the bathroom with an armful of pyjamas. Tyler slipped into his bed, finally relaxing and closing his eyes. 

 

The next morning Tyler woke early, as he always did when he was staying somewhere unfamiliar. Rolling over he watched Josh for a moment, letting his heart swell at the sight. He was curled up, mouth slack, looking the picture of peaceful. Being as quiet as he possibly could Tyler climbed out of bed, pulled on some trousers that he was borrowing, with his hoodie from yesterday and left the room, the door making a quiet tsk sound. 

Last night it had been explained to them that most of the wardrobes were full of old clothes, that were free to be used. Tyler had looked through them and found frilly blouses, womens victorian dresses, velvet trousers and various other vintage garments in an array of sizes. He had found some plain tailored black trousers that seemed to fit and also had an eye on a womens floral shirt he had seen.

Making his way out he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and hoped he could will himself out of this maze towards a coffee shop. Along the way, downstairs, sitting behind an old desk, overhung with towering piles of dining chairs and assorted objects that he had no hope of identifying, Tyler saw Mike hunched sleepily. Supposedly waiting for customers, though Tyler had never seen one. Back here in the depths of the shop there was no daylight but Mike still looked vaguely uncomfortable. Tyler nodded in his direction as he passed through, though Mike barely looked up. 

After two sharp turns in the wrong direction and lots of stumbling Tyler found his way to the shop front, the air here was hazy, weaving between suspended chairs, lamps, rocking horses and god only knows what else. Tyler paused, watching the dust float in the shafts of light and taking a deep breath. He regretted this, after thinking about how he probably just filled his lungs with the dust of hundreds of years. However he felt calm though now that he could see the sunlight. 

"I'm tired," he grumbled to himself as he picked his feet back up and left the shop. The street outside is busy, it's a stark contrast and Tyler found that he didn't mind. Give him normal, give him everyday, mundane people who didn't have a fucking clue about anything. 

Taking out his phone he sent Josh a message,

'I'm going to get my fix of coffee, you looked fully gone but if you wake up before I get bk tell me and I'll send u the address of wherever I find'

Tyler only had to walk for five minutes before he found a coffee shop, it was humming with people catching their first morning break or like him trying to rouse themselves for the day ahead. After ordering a coffee and caramel shortbread he settled himself into a quiet nook, the staff were friendly and his coffee was how he likes it. He took a second deep breath, this one is nicer, he could smell the warm scent of coffee and cinnamon. It’s the kind of smell you would want a candle of, everything about this place was warm, the windows were stained glass so the light is mottled with light shades of green. Several lamps hung but only emit a dull glow, the sound of the coffee machine grinder was familiar and Tyler felt at peace.

After quietly sitting with his earphones on for a good while Tylers began phone buzzing. 

Jish 11.12am   
Good morning

Tyler 11.13am   
Mornin Josh

11.16am   
Are you far away? I'm too tired for far away

11.16am   
Nope! Take a right out of the shop, walk straight ahead for like five minutes and you'll see a cafe with a red sign 

11.20am   
Okay I'm setting off in a sec

 

Tyler 11.45am   
when ur almost here drop me a bell

Tyler 11.55am   
down the staircase, drop a church bell down the staircase, let it ring, let it ring loud, i will know

11.59am   
hahaha ring ring!!!!

Tyler sat up and looked around expectantly. After a moment he noticed someone walking in, that someone was drawing a lot of attention, no one could avoid looking at them in their beekeepers helmet, elbow length gloves and hoodie with its sleeves rolled up, the attire was confusing to say the least. Tyler had a dreadful feeling that whoever it was, was coming up to his table. His fears were confirmed when he noticed Brendon who was currently screaming with laughter and Josh who seemed to be finding the whole situation hilarious. Pete, it was Pete. As he sat down he slip the beekeepers helmet off, exposing his gleeful face. 

“This is too much” Brendon said gasping and trying to hold onto the back of one of the chairs for support,

Josh slid into the booth next to Tyler with a grin on his face, “Sorry I got held up by these children” 

“I’m not really sure what’s funny but hi!” Pete said

Tyler stared at Josh for long enough to make him shift uncomfortably before laughing to himself and turning to Pete “Aw man, don’t listen to these guys Pete! I wanna be just like you!”

“Yea, no, you’re my fashion icon Pete!” Josh quickly added.

Brendon was now sat at the table, rocking forward in excitement. “Oh god, it’s just so clever though! You’ve gone undetected by demons all this time simply because you’ve always gone outside in daylight! But to think that this ruse fooled us? This? A beekeepers outfit as casual-wear?”

“Hey, no, sometimes I wear a floppy hat to hide from the sun?” 

“It’s all chill, take Josh here, I once saw him wear zebra print leggings with so much confidence that no one even questioned it, and he’s my best friend!” Tyler said, his face straight, only very slightly showing his inner glee,

“How long have you two known each other for?” Pete asked 

“About two weeks? Less?” Tyler said turning to look at Josh who was nodding in agreement.

“Oh man, you’re quick” Pete said,

“That’s what they call me back home!” 

“Quick?”

“Yes.”

Brendon who had slipped away to get coffees was now setting a tray down on the table, handing Josh and Pete their orders.

“Thanks dude,” Pete leaned back in his chair, taking a deep drink from his cup. “Staying awake in the day is haaaard”

“Do you do it just to evade demons? To trick them into thinking you’re human?” Tyler asked, taking a sip of his own coffee.

“What? No I don’t do it for that? I didn’t realise that worked?”

“How did you think you had avoided detection for so long?” Brendon asked baffled.

“Oh well, Patrick always told me that I was really good at being lowkey”

“Um, what tone of voice does Patrick say that in?” Tyler asked, imagining Patrick seeing Pete wearing god knows what from god knows where and just nodding along, quietly amused.

“Where is Patrick anyway?” Brendon asked

“Oh shit, I left him alone, I wasn’t thinking, I heard the word coffee and basically floated here”

“You definitely didn’t float?” Josh said amused,

“Well I’m here and Patrick is there! All alone!” 

“All alone! So lonely! I bet he’s wailing on the floor by now!” Tyler said joining in, a smile threatening to take over his face

“Oh man, you think? I’d better go back, sorry”

“Its fine! I’ll get these in to-go cups, don’t worry man” Brendon said, patting Pete reassuringly on the back.

 

After having rushed home, they found Patrick sitting at the back of the shop with Dallon, the two quietly engrossed in a game of chess. 

“I’m so sorry Patrick! It was so thoughtless of me to leave you!” Pete yelled rushing over to Patrick and laying a wet kiss on his cheek,

“What? I’m just playing chess?”

“Wait, you weren’t lonely?”

“No…? 

“Not wailing on the floor in loneliness?” asked Pete, Tyler snickered at that,

“I’ve been with Dallon this whole time?”

“Dallon? Oh, hi Dallon”

“Hi!” Dallon beamed,

“Yeah, believe it or not I have friends besides you, what did you think I do when you go to sleep?” Patrick marvelled, fighting to keep a smirk down

“Yea man, Patrick comes over all the time to play chess with Dal, it’s really very boring.” Brendon cut in, sitting himself down on a tall pile of books.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, you always watch, get smashed and start singing show tunes” Dallon questioned.

“You do seem to enjoy it” Patrick said chirping in.

At this point Tyler was having to use Josh for support because he was laughing so hard. 

 

From there out the day was spent playing various chess games, lounging around, Brendon had retrieved some Bourbon from somewhere after having disappeared with Pete for an hour.   
Tyler spent half of the day climbing up the towers of antiques until he landed badly, needing to sit down with his foot in Joshes lap. From this position he was attempting to dare the others to climb the tower of luggage trunks that he had earlier fallen from, Dallon tried once but found that his legs were too long to give him any balance. He reasoned that when standing he nearly reached the height of it so in his mind that was a win. 

“Ah! Guys look at this!” Brendon was standing deep in one of the aisles holding an old french horn up triumphantly,

“Sick!” Tyler shouted.

Sitting down Brendon began fiddling and attempting to play the instrument, “I’m in love”

Everyone was feeling merry from the bourbon that Pete and Brendon had brought in and shared around so when Gerard drifted in at nightfall everyone was very happy to see him.

Pete got up immediately, putting an arm around Gerard and leading him into the heart of the merrymaking, “Good Morning Gerard!” 

“Gerard?” Tyler had turned, having watched Gerard approach and was now staring at his shoulder, not far from where Petes hand lay but certainly not a part of Pete.

“Yes” Gerard replied cheerfully

“What is that on your shoulder?” 

“A frog” Gerard replied simply 

“What?” Pete gasped, retracting his hand quickly and leaning around to look at the offending object.

“Um, can I ask why you have a frog on your shoulder?” Dallon said from his seat at the chess table.

“I’m a frog dad” was the only answer that Gerard gave,

“Wha-?” Josh attempted to ask again,

A loud toot from Brendons horn interrupted him, everyone looked over at him, “he’s a man of mystery, let him be.” Brendon explained.

And they did just that, Gerard settled himself down next to Josh, gently stroking his frog companion who seemed quite happy to stay sat on his shoulder. After Josh had stared longingly for a while, Gerard let him hold the creature. Tyler heard him whisper “You’re a bit like an alien” to the frog and tried to choke down a laugh.

“Where’s Frank?” Gerard asked, looking around them concerned.

No one really had an answer, come to think of it, Tyler hadn’t seen Frank all day. They weren’t left wondering for long though.  
Tyler had heard a distant thudding that he hadn’t paid attention to. As it neared however it was clear that there was some sort of festivity.   
A brassy sound made everyone turn to find the source, the surrounding towers of antiques made it unclear. Until however, clearly paying them no mind, a raucous procession of vampires came marching down the adjoining aisle. 

Billy was leading, though it was not immediately clear who it was, given that he had an extremely tall hat perched on his head. It was military in shape but atop sprouted a large plume that bounced with each of Billys movements. He was slamming two large cymbals together with such force that the surrounding antiques were vibrating with it, looking to all the world as though they too wanted to join in on the din.   
Behind him, Tre, who was in very high spirits was swinging his arms wildly back and forth, marching jubilantly. After him Mike was blowing a rusting trombone, his cheeks reddened by the exertion. They did not seem to care for what noise they made, so long at it was loud.  
Lastly and least noticeably was a smaller figure, who looked quite swamped in the red and black marching-uniform that they were all wearing. His hands didn’t reach out of his sleeves, they flapped as he half heartedly swung them, a baton held limply in his hand. His hat near covered his face as it rested on the end of his nose.

Frank. What on earth is Frank doing in this specticle, Tyler wondered.   
He glanced at the others to see whether they had noticed Frank, Brendon certainly hadn’t. He had let his own horn slide from his mouth, frozen, mouth still puckered ready to toot the instrument but eyes concentrating solely of the precession before them. Tyler decided that he looked like a mesmerised kid and was sure that his deepest desire was to join the march. They passed through quickly however, Frank falling back and pushing his helmet from his eyes. 

“Guys! Where were you? Why didn’t you come for me?” Frank looked aghast, rushing over after having noticed them sitting in amongst the miscellaneous furniture. The marchers didn’t seem to notice that they had lost a member as their noise quietened some, withdrawing further into the shop.

“We didn’t know where you were.” Tyler explained, guiltily leaving out that they had only just noticed his absence,

“What happened?” Pete asked, eyes wide.

“This morning I was going to the loo and then Tre just was there, the vamp with the blue hair? He asked me to go upstairs to the attic with him and I was hella fucking spooked you know? But like okay?” Frank said, talking fast and squeezing in to sit between Josh and Gerard. 

“Yeah?” Pete urged,

“So I go up and they’re all hanging out and I’m kinda stuck with them? I don’t fucking know man, there was a bunch of weed and there were these, like, pirates?” Frank was shaking his head, looking into the middle distance, “They had on so many frills and like ruffles and so many hats, hats on hats on hats! It was like a weird fever dream, there were bats everywhere. Sometimes I thought THEY were bats, but I was tripping.” 

“Oh no, yeah that was probably real, we can transform into bats.” Pete said to the surprise of everyone else.

Gerard sat up really straight, his frog still grasped in his hands, as it had been trying to jump around mindlessly because all of the noise and commotion of earlier.

“Billy!” Pete stood, cupping his hands to yell into, “Billy?”

Miraculously, Billy heard him and came down the stairs, no longer in Marching gear.

“Billy! Come over here, would show them how you turn into a bat?” Pete asked,

Without even replying Billy began to transform, it was so fast that Tyler couldn’t quite make out what was happening until the process was over. A darkness, an almost gloomy haze seemed to submerge Billy for a moment before the shape of it shrunk and condensed, leaving a flitting bat. Surely wiser than an ordinary bat but looking simple enough, coming and going in great, whirling circles. 

Gerard had stood, now drifting closer as though being lured. 

“Cool right?” Pete asked, a large grin on his face.

“Can I transform?” Gerard asked eagerly.

“Yea sure, I’ll teach you” Pete offered, and as quickly as the bat arrived into the room it left. Stood in its place was a sceptical looking Billy Joe.

“Um no, i’ll do it, you’re not that good” billy interrupted, walking over to Gerard.

Affronted Pete turned to Patrick who smoothed his hair gently “I love when you turn into a bat Pete, don’t worry.”


	7. Boys get sad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Petes POV. We haven't yet fully proofread, promise to do that in the morning. For now please forgive typos or mistakes!

Authors Note:  
Petes POV. We haven’t yet fully proof read, promise to do that in the morning. For now please forgive typos or mistakes! 

 

Early the next morning Brendon arrived at the library, with Pete, Patrick and Dallon in tow. The room was two stories tall, with windows on the upper floors sending shafts of light down onto a vast maze of aisles. Glass cabinets lined the outer walls, each full of old books. Pete immediately ran to the ladders that were affixed to these cabinets and began sliding along on them.

“Patrick! Patrick, push me!” 

In response Brendon Walked over and pushed Pete forcefully, Patrick panicked momentarily as he watched Petes ladder turn the corner out of view.

“Brendon, why are we even here?” Patrick asked shaking his head.

“We’re going ghost hunting!” Brendon said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I wish I could have found Josh and Tyler, they would have loved this, I brought all of this sweet gear,” He gestured to his feet where a bag full of ghost hunting paraphernalia lay. 

“You know that’s extremely offensive right?” Patrick asked.

“Why?”

Patrick didn’t deem that with a response instead shoving his hand through Brendons abdomen, who in response began giggling uncontrollably.

“Patrick! Please! Mercy!”

“What are you doing?” Pete said, walking back to the group looking ruffled. 

“Pete! Look we did it! We caught a ghost!” Brendon gasped excitedly between giggles.

“Trick, how could you! You know that’s our thing, you’re only supposed to put your hand inside of me.” 

“Pete!” Patrick admonished, embarrassed.

“Ha! You two totally fancy each other” Brendon said with a smug expression.  
“I know, it’s a highschool au come true! Well, I think. I haven’t actually ever been to a highschool before.” Pete said, egging him on.

“Yeah no shit Brendon, they are together,” Dallon cut in looking amused. 

Patrick turned on his heel and began walking down one of the many aisles.

“Where are you going?” Brendon called after him.

“I’m looking for ghosts dumbass” Patrick called not looking back.

“Okay, we’ll go this way to cover more ground” Brendon shouted at his retreating back.

Brendon began walking in the opposite direction with Dallon trailing not far behind. He turned his head to see Pete still stood, looking torn over who to follow. 

“Come on Pete!” Brendon said, gesturing for him to follow.

“Will he be alright? Won’t he get lost?” Pete asked, worried.

“Nah, it’s fine!” Brendon said dismissively, “He literally hangs out with us in hell, he knows how to watch his own back.”

Brendon seemed thoughtful for a moment, “Is he really a ghost?” he asked, as they turned a corner onto a particularly dust filled passage.

Dallon looked askew at Brendon “What the fuck Brendon.” 

“Yes.” Pete replied. 

“Brendon you do know how we first met Patrick, right? That hasn’t just completely left your head?”

“Yeah, it definitely has.” 

“Right. Well, I was assigned to take on ghost case.”

“Ghost case?” Brendon looked very confused.

“Oh, for Lucifers sake. Okay, so you remember that time I was promoted and we went ice skating to celebrate?”

“Aw yeah man, I still have a cool scar from when I fell down and you kicked your blade into my skull!”

“Oh shit, did that scar?”

“Yeah” Brendon said, proudly showing Dallon the back of his head.

“That’s tiny! It’s just a little regeneration mark,”

“But it’s still cool!”

“Right. Well anyway, we were celebrating my promotion into the ghost department. Where I was tasked with being a ghost liaison, basically someone who would explain to new ghosts what they now were and that they were free to roam hell and earth alike.” 

“Oh, I thought he was just another demon or something”

“I really don’t understand you.” Dallon sighed.

“Hey, how did you meet him then?” Pete asked, looking genuinely curious.

“He was assigned to me when he died, but I grew fond of him and when he didn’t need me anymore we just kept hanging out.”

“That was where he was for months then, after he died then?” Pete asked.

“Yeah, there’s an adjustment period with becoming a ghost.”

“Oh, that was my darkest time.” Pete said, a shadow seeming to fall across his face.

“Hey why have I never been assigned to the ghost department, that sounds cool.” Brendon asked not having been paying attention. 

“I think we both know why.” Dallon said looking sadly. “You’d have too much fun messing with the ghosts. You’re much more suited to the soul collecting department.” He stepped closer to Brendon, putting his arm around his shoulder, giving Pete a worried side glance. 

“Well, we can find us some ghosts now!” Brendon said cheerily, moving to look closely at the bookshelves “Libraries are great places to find them! 

Pete watched as the two began pulling books out of the shelves and peering behind them. He couldn’t bring himself to join in, his mind still on Patrick. Instead Pete sits down heavily on an armchair that is sitting at the end of the aisle next to a table and reading lamp.  
“Hey Pete, are you okay? Wanna talk about it?” Dallon asks, walking over to sit on the floor beside him. “Don’t worry, I’m sure that’ll keep him distracted for a while” Dallon said, looking over at Brendon who was now attempting to scale the bookshelves in search of spirits. 

“I’m just bummed about Patrick. I know it’s been a long time but its my last human memory and that kinda sticks, you know?” 

“What happened?”

“After Patrick was… murdered” Pete said, shuffling uncomfortably. 

“Yeah?”

“I was alone. He was just, gone. That was it. I know now that he was with you and that he came back. But then? I didn’t, he was just gone.” Pete said, picking at a loose thread on the armchair. 

“I had known Patrick since I was a small boy, our families being heavily connected. He had always meant more to me than anyone else, so when I lost him, I lost my only true companion. I was broken, never having been the most emotionally stable man, this? This was too much. I lost myself for a while there, in that time I wasn’t Pete, not really. I was a shapeless form of a man, so desperately wanting a way out, any way out.”

“How did you come back from that?” Dallon asked, sitting attentively at Petes feet.

“I came here, all that time ago. Billy and my father had been great friends, as such my father had sent me here to stay and recover. It was no better, in those days spent here, I wandered the halls barely knowing my own name, I would cry in bed all day. Billy took pity on me, after observing for the first month. He told me that he knew how to ease my suffering.” Pete paused, looking at Dallon significantly.

“Oh! So…”

“Yeah. Billy turned me.”

“That was a mistake!” Bendon said, having just walked over to catch the last sentence. Dallon looked at him sharply. 

“What?” Pete asked, in a pained voice. 

“It doesn’t matter” Dallon said, in a reassuring tone, still looking sharply at Brendon.

“No, tell me.” Pete said. 

“Well you know you’re in danger all the time, hunted day and night! It must be exhausting from a vampires perspective.” Brendon explained cheerfully.

“Fucking hell Brendon” Dallon scolded. 

“Yeah, but I’m not reeeeally being hunted am I?”

“I mean. Yeah, you are.” Brendon replied. 

“Well no one is specifically looking for me.” 

“Oh well not as many as there are looking for Billy, but I guess you’re in as much danger anyway since you’re staying here. And I know John and Spencer are on your case, I was talking to Spencer about it before we left. He was feeling pretty optimistic about his latest lead. ” Brendon continued.

“Lead?” Pete repeated looking panicked, getting up and beginning to walking back and forth. 

“Pete? Are you okay” Dallon asked but Pete didn’t seem to even hear him, his breath becoming erratic. 

“Wait, what’s wrong with Pete?” Brendon asked, now looking concerned. Dallon shot him a look and walked over to place a hand on Petes back. Dallon could see Petes hair beginning to drain of colour, becoming an almost transparent white. 

“Okay, we really need to find Patrick now.” Dallon said, attempting to guide Pete down the passageway. 

After wandering the library for some time, with Pete only becoming more despondent, they found Patrick deep in the library sitting on the floor below a window. He was currently covered in small spirits. They were spherical creatures, looking soft and emitting occasional small coos. 

“Patrick! How did u find them?” Brendon pushed his way past Dallon and Pete in excitement.

“I'm a ghost. Do you not get that?”

“Ha!” 

“Patrick, we actually really need you.” Dallon said, stepping forward, ushering Pete to do the same.

Looking up Patricks face dropped, standing with such haste that all of the creatures scurried away from him, underneath the bookshelves and out of sight. “What has happened to Pete?” He demanded. 

“Ah, well Brendon may have told him that he’s being hunted by the demons.” Dallon said shuffling guiltily.

Patrick didn’t respond. Instead he grabbed Petes hand, avoiding looking at either Dallon or Brendon as he walked out of the library. He lead Pete gently upstairs to the room that they were sharing. It had been Petes room since the 1800s, from before he had even been turned, there was nothing about the place that had been changed since then, besides the electrical fittings and superficial clutter. There were spider webs hanging limply from spiders that had long left this place, most of the wall space was taken up with bookshelves. But most noticeably the room housed a grand four poster bed, with duvets stacked high utop and heavy drapes drawn closed so that Pete would be completely safe from any daylight. 

“Oh Pete,” Patrick said softly, as he walked Pete over so that they can both sit on the bed and folded him into his arms, Gently rubbing his back, “What am I gonna do with you.” 

Over the next few days Pete didn’t improve, he spent all of his time laying in bed. No one could get a word out of him. Billie, surprisingly had been spending a lot of time at Petes bedside, talking quietly to him. Patrick didn't leave his side at all but soon became impatient with Petes despondent state. By Thursday Patrick had taken to walk through things in an attempt to get Petes attention and cheer him up. It began with pacing back and forth through the bed and Pete himself, out of agitation, but surely morphed into him floating through the floor pulling exaggerated faces, or popping up through the toilet seat when Pete went to use it. 

It was late afternoon when Patrick heard scuffling outside the window, he walked over to have a look and to his surprise found both Tyler and Josh standing on the roof beneath it. 

“Where the hell have you two been?” Patrick asked in relief, he had been worried to find out that Tyler and Josh had been missing for the past couple of days, though hadn’t thought much on it as he had been so focussed on Pete.

“Oh hello Patrick!” Tyler called up from where Josh was attempting to give him a leg-up, to little success. 

“Hello Patrick!” Josh echoed,

“Are you going to explain why you are climbing up the side of the building?” Patrick asked, leaning out of the window, “Here take my hand” 

“Thank you very much” Tyler said once Patrick had pulled him inside.  
After helping Josh in as well Patrick sat back on the bed. “Are you avoiding my questions?” 

“No Patrick, we are just very tired.” Tyler replied

“Tyler, would you like to go to bed?” Josh asked, turning to the other.

“Yes.” Came Tylers stiff response.

“Good night Patrick,” Josh said, before they promptly turned to leave the room.


	8. Boys Get Grumpy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The vampires in this chapter are Palaye Royale! (a cool band)

Frank found Brendon in the kitchen when he went to find himself some food. He was sitting on the floor with an arm half submerged in a box of cereal.

“I don’t need to eat, you know, because I’m a demon. But this shit’s good.” Brendon said around a mouth-full of lucky charms.

Frank tried not to look too closely at him, for fear of being put off of his own food. 

“Where did you find those?”

“In the pantry” Brendon replied, pointing to a door near the fridge. 

“Ah in the closet still are you?” Brendon said as Frank opened the door and walked inside to look through the dried foods. 

“Huh?” Frank replied eloquently,

“I said you’re gay” Brendon yelled as he crammed more cereal into his mouth.

Frank didn’t deem that with a response, instead grabbing a box of cereal from the shelf.

“Gay with Gerard!” Brendon continued

Inside the cupboard, Frank turned and looked up sharply, then sneezed three times in quick succession and hit his head on the sloping ceiling.

"What?"

“I bet Gerard’s the bottom” Brendon continued, smiling to himself. 

Suddenly having no appetite, Frank got out of the cupboard, threw the box of Froot loops he had been holding at Brendon as he passed, and marched across the kitchen to Gerards makeshift room, slamming the door behind him. Before it fully shut however, Frank caught an unfortunate glimpse of Brendon gleefully crawling across the floor, collecting froot loops that had escaped their box.

“I’m not gay” Frank grumbled towards Gerard who was currently attempting to wash a frog in the sink.

“What?” Gerard asked, looking up in surprise at such a statement.

“I said I’m not hungry.” 

“Right.” 

Frank continued to walk across the room so that he could watch whatever the fuck Gerard was doing, in an attempt to calm down.

“Here, will you hold this frog for me?” Gerard asked as he retrieved yet another frog from a nearby plant pot.

“Sure.”

Frank climbed onto the counter beside the sink Gerard was working at. The worktop was covered in plant pots and plants alike, pruning scissors lay abandoned, along with rolls of twine and other such gardening tools. The room itself, was an orangery, neither a glass house nor a conservatory. Sitting somewhere in the middle with its large windows and corrugated metal ceiling. There were plants everywhere, some fruit bearing and others flowering, the space felt warm, it was perhaps Franks favourite room. 

“One second Frank,” Gerard said, handing Frank the frog he had been washing and walking across the room to where, in the corner sat an old cabinet that Gerard had been using as his daytime resting place. “You said you liked playing guitar right?” His voice come out muffled as he lent into the cabinet. 

“Yeah?” 

Gerard stood up straighter, turning to look at Frank, triumphantly holding up a battered old acoustic guitar. “Here! Probably sounds like shit but I found this earlier.” 

Frank jumped down from the worktop, running over to hug Gerard in excitement. The hug was awkward considering both of Franks hands were busy holding frogs but Gerard returned it enthusiastically. He soon positioned himself back on the counter, now free from frogs as Gerard had taken them back. Frank stayed like that for a while, gently picking at the guitar. It was soothing to just watch Gerard, he had been methodically filling plant pots with soil for reasons indiscernible to Frank. He could feel the cool nights air on the back of his neck, since he had opened a few of the windows. He felt calm.

Frank could hear giggling from the kitchen,“I’m sure there’s a hemp plant in here somewhere?” Came Billies voice from the doorway. 

“Hemp?” Gerard repeated, startled 

“Fuckers! How’re you two?” Billie shouted out with a grin, walking further into the room.

“Hi Billie, did you say something about a hemp plant?” Gerard asked

“Yea! I’m sure there’s one in here somewhere!” Billie replied, patting Gerard gamely on the back.

Gerard promptly turned and collected his frogs from their various places, Frank could hear him whispering to them “Don’t worry kids, I’ll find you somewhere safer to stay” 

Frank watched as Gerard carried the frogs out of the room and Billie began looking through the plants.

“Oh, that old thing, I meant to chuck that away,” Billie said, gesturing to the guitar that Frank was absentmindedly strumming. “I smashed it on the ground when I was angry and it hasn’t sounded the same since”

“Would you mind if I repaired it? I haven’t got any of my guitars with me and I was missing them.”

“Sure, knock yourself out kid.” 

Frank took a moment to assess the damage on the guitar and when he looked up again Gerard had returned, now frogless. 

“Hey guys I found it!” Billie called out.

A replying shuffle of footsteps resulted in Tre, Mike and three other men coming into the room. 

“That’s them” Frank exclaimed, recognising the three men from a few days previous. 

“That’s who?” Gerard asked patiently, pulling himself up to sit beside Frank on the worktop.

“The guys I told you about, from when I was tripping out on weed!” Frank explained.

Gerard turned his head to look at him steadily, “Hats on hats on hats?” He asked incredulously.

“Uhh yeah, may have missed the mark there when trying to describe them.” 

Frank looked at them now, they were all talking excitedly with Billie, presumedly about the hemp plant that had been discovered. Only one of them was wearing a hat, a single hat. It was wide brimmed and dusty. In this light Frank could tell that they weren’t pirates, but in fact young looking vampires.

The hatted boy sat himself down on one of the steps leading up to the back door, hunching over a sketchbook. He was striking, with his vertically striped black and white jeans, ruffled blouse and elfish face. 

One of the other vampires walked over to Gerard and Frank to introduce himself,

“Hi! I’m Remington.” He seemed friendly enough but Frank was tired, having only caught a short nap in the daytime. 

“Hello!” Gerard replied, “I’m Gerard and this is Frank, he’s kinda grumpy tired so don’t expect much of a response from him.” Frank looked at Gerard sharply but didn’t say anything. He was grumpy tired after all. 

“I’m going to check on Pete” Billie said to the room at large, getting up promptly. 

Gerard quickly got down from the worktop “Hey, I’ll see you later, yeah?” he said quickly to Remington before following Billie out of the room. Looking behind him to check that Frank was following. He was. They climbed the stairs to the top floor in silence and knocked on Pete and Patricks door.

“Come in!” Patrick called from inside.

“I wanted to check on Pete,” Billie said, walking into the bedroom and plopping himself onto the bed. 

“He hasn’t said anything yet,” Patrick said, looking tired.

“Give him time Patrick, he’ll come back, he always does.” Billy said reassuringly, now poking Petes face.

“Hi,” Gerard said quietly, walking further into the room.

“Hey you two, come sit down” Patrick said, gesturing to his bed. 

“Has anyone heard from Tyler or Josh yet?” Gerard asked the group now sitting on Pete and Patricks bed.

“Oh yeah, they came home yesterday, but it was really weird, they were being really cryptic” Patrick replied looking concerned.

“Yeah I saw them outside this morning, they were just pulling plants out of the flower bed. Tyler looked really fucking angry” Billie added not seeming bothered. “Hey maybe if we get pete high! He’ll be happy again!” 

“No!” Pete exclaimed, eyes finally focussing on everyone around him. 

“Pete!” Patrick clambered across the bed and grabbed Pete into a hug. 

“Hi Trick” Pete replied very quietly. He still looked terrible, his eyes dark and solemn.

After a while everyone fell into excited discussion, the mood had been lifted significantly by Pete becoming responsive again. Dallon and Brendon had come upstairs, the latter of whom was now making a show of pressing big wet kisses onto Petes face. 

“Get off, get off” Pete finally broke, batting brendon away.

“I knew I could get you to talk to me!” Brendon replied excitedly.

“Patrick I’m so sorry” Dallon said sincerely.

Frank looked up from his position laying half across Gerard, who was sitting cross legged and talking animatedly to Billie about his frog. Franks eyes fell on Brendon, who was looking at him meaningfully. His words from earlier came back into Franks head, suddenly he felt extremely uncomfortable. He could just get up of course, but would that be letting Brendon win, would it be more incriminating? Frank wasn't sure so stayed in his position, laying now stiff as a board. He couldn't think of much beyond the unease in his stomach, perhaps he should feign sleep?

Gerards hand began carding through his hair, this only made it worse. Frank could practically see Brendons eyes glittering but was adamantly no longer looking in his direction. Frank made a point of yawning very loudly, Gerard looked down at him, this made it even worse. From here Frank could see Gerards dark curly eyelashes individually, could see each of his tiny cute teeth as he smiled warmly at him. Nope. Not helpful, Gerard definitely didn't have to look this warm and inviting. Perhaps this was somehow Gerards fault? No, Frank had to admit that the blame lay with him and his stupid feelings.

"I'm tired! Gonna go to bed! Good night everyone!" Frank said fast, letting the words run over each other as he lifted himself off of gerard, tumbling ungainly until he was standing on the floor. 

"Oh are you?" Brendons eyebrows were high on his forehead, Frank ignored him. 

"Hey? Want me to come?" Gerard asked, looking concerned.

"No!" Frank spat out, eyes betraying him and looking at Brendon who was now shaking with laughter.

"Okay..." Gerard looked hurt and suddenly Frank realised what he had just done.

"Hey, no, I mean yeah, come on then." 

After saying their good nights and leaving the room Frank let out a large breath, he was relieved to no longer feel watched.

"Are you okay Frank?" Gerard asked after a moment of silence. 

"Yeah?"

"Right, well you don't look okay. I could feel how tense your muscles were back there." Gerard said, unconvinced.

"Um, no. Truthfully? Brendon was making me feel uncomfortable." 

"Oh," Gerard said, clearly surprised. "Are you still angry at each other from your fight?" 

"No? Oh, no, that's fine. He's just a dick."

"Right" Gerard still looked concerned.

They soon reached Franks room, which was on the third floor. He had found it on the first night after having left Gerard in his daytime cupboard. It was small and bright, the only items in the narrow room were an old wardrobe which stood beside the door, a small brass antique bed, pushed to one corner, and a bedside table that housed his toothbrush, a box of cigarettes that he shouldn't have and a rubbish novel he had found. On the same wall was a tall window, one of the only windows in the building that wasn't either nailed closed with wooden shutters or a dark coloured stained glass. Frank had chosen this room because of it, he liked to hang out of it watching the street below. He now walked across the room opened said window and rested his arms against the ledge. 

"You know, you can talk to me. I'm not some bullshit councillor, I actually care about you." Gerard said, from behind him.

"There's nothing wrong," Frank said, not very convincingly. He scuffed his foot against the carpet before climbing to sit on the windowsill, facing out towards the street. 

"Move over" Gerard said, gesturing for Frank to shuffle along the window sill and climbing so that he was sat next to him, legs dangling down the outer wall. 

Franks shoulders were snug against Gerards and he realised that they were rarely not touching whenever they hung out. This made Frank feel nervous, he wasn't sure why. 

"Can I have a cigarette?" Gerard asked already leaning back and grabbing the box.

"Sure," Frank replied absentmindedly.

"I get it," Gerard said, holding a cigarette between his teeth, hands cupped to let it catch alight "You're angry and you don't want to talk about it because no one ever reacts well when you do." 

Frank cast Gerard a weary look.

"And maybe, maybe you don't want to talk to me about it because I have problems too and that makes you scared because you don't want to be a burden."

"Gerard, you don't just have problems? You have actual fucking demons hunting you!" 

"Yea, potato, potarto. Just because one person has a horrific situation, like, a terminal illness or something. That doesn't make someone else, say, who is sad all the time and doesn't know whys pain is less real. Don't compare that shit, bad is bad and it doesn't matter what the trigger is." Gerard waved his hands emphatically so that Frank had to steady him, for fear of him falling out of the window. Gerard hardly seemed to notice. "Talk to me Frank, I want to know your shit."

"I'm just angry, a lot." 

"Yeah?"

"I lose my temper for no fucking reason! Everything just feels so itchy and irritating." Frank took a shuddering breath. "I need to be doing something all of the time and my head is just so messed up, like I need to exhaust myself, make myself fall into bed with a blank mind from being so overworked. But here? I'm not doing anything, I'm not working, I'm just kicking about and it's driving me crazy. I wanna scream and break stuff."

"Frank you can leave if you want to, need to. Please don't stay if-"

"No! No, no I can't, I don't want to. I want to be here. It's fine, I'm just feeling tense. And that's why." Frank interrupted. Purposefully ignoring that he hadn't really explained what had made him so tense tonight. In this situation, vague was good, Frank reasoned.

"Okay, maybe we can go break some shit together sometime?" 

"That sounds good," Frank said, laughing. "Hey, what about you? How are you coping with the whole 'demons want me dead' thing?" 

Gerard snubbed the last of his cigarette against the window sill and let it drop onto the street. He turned and climbed back into the room with a heaving sigh, and flopped onto the bed. He stayed silent for a while, Frank watched as Gerard stared at the ceiling.

"I feel like I'm in the backseat of my own car you know? And I'm just letting everyone else try to steer it away from the cliff. Like everyone is trying to keep me safe and what the fuck am I doing?" 

Frank climbed back into the room and walked over to perch on the edge of the bed. "You're figuring your shit out. And we're all here to support you, there's nothing wrong with that. This isn't a normal situation Gerard, you can't be expected to know what to do" He said, looking down at him. “And… you know… if you think about it. This is all Petes fault, he was the one who turned you. The one who set you up for a life of hiding and being hunted. That shit’s fucked up.” 

“Pete’s going through his own stuff. Did you not see him back there, he’s not exactly the picture of health and good cheer.”

“I’m just making a point, you’re not the one to blame.” 

 

 

Brendon and Dallon were in their shared bedroom getting ready for bed. Sleep wasn’t necessary for them but they liked to make a show of it.

“Dallon, does everyone hate me?” Brendon asked, pulling his leg into his pyjama bottoms. 

“Yeah,” Dallon replied wisely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really god damn hard? But there are so many exciting chapters ahead!


	9. Boys Forget

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Tylers POV Part 1 out of 2.

Three days earlier:

 

Josh was very tired. Very very tired, as he had put it to Tyler. So in an attempt to ease Joshes troubles, Tyler was now in a convenience store choosing between Reese's Puffs and Waffle Crisps. Knowing that he would like the latter better he grabbed some milk and went to pay. The queue was five people long and he was impatient with hunger, but he knew that it would be worth it to make Josh smile, Tyler diligently got into line.

Once he had gotten back, cereal in hand he ran up the stairs two at a time. It was a bright morning and the whole house felt warm, which was a welcome change since the old building was usually so drafty. He found Josh laying on his stomach, arms stretched above his head. He was fully dressed, on top of the covers, having obviously tried and failed to get up.

"Morning, sunshine! I brought you your favorite cereal so will you please get up?" Tyler asked, laughing as Josh quickly rose his head.

"They're my favorite! Tyler you are beautiful!" Josh said, sitting up quickly and smiling adoringly at the cereal box.

They ate in silence for a while, Josh concentrating on his food and Tyler stealing glances because he found Joshs reverence of the cereal deeply amusing.

After finishing his cereal and setting the bowl to one side, promising himself that he would take it downstairs to wash later, Tyler got his journal out from his backpack. He was in the mood to write lyrics, so settled himself on his bed, tucking his legs up to lean the book against and started.

Josh was drumming fingers against the bed frame, it decidedly wasn't helpful to Tylers concentration. He shot him a pointed look.

"I miss my drums man, my mum used to, she used to, say something," Josh said, shaking his head.

Tyler set his journal aside for a moment. "Maybe one day, after all of this we could make some music together," Tyler asked, feeling wistful.

"Dude, I can't think of anything I'd like better."

After a moment of imagining Tyler started writing again. He had a song that was coming together and that he thought maybe, might just be good.

"Look, Tyler, this ant just walked through some water I spilled and now he's dancing," Josh said, interrupting Tylers concentration.

"Dancing?" Tyler looked up in spite of himself. He found that Josh is half hanging off of his bed, closely inspecting an ant on the floorboard. "I'm not sure that's dancing"

"No no, look, he's doing your signature move!"

"My... what?"

"That bendy knee, wiggly thing."

"And you've seen me do this when?"

"I just have." Josh was adamant, and though Tyler knew that he did dance like that, perhaps not exactly as the ant was doing right then but near about. He just couldn't remember doing it in front of Josh.

"They've all abandoned him, the horrible buggers," Josh continued, eyeing the group of ants who did, indeed continue towards the wall. Leaving their comrade to flail, repeatedly trying to walk on its unsteady legs.

"Would you do that to me if I couldn't walk?" Josh asked idly, attempting to gently blow on the poor creature.

"No," Tyler said amused

After a moment of silence where Tyler managed to finish trying to find a rhyme for the word 'disease'. Josh noisily rolled onto his back, head hanging upside down off of the side of his mattress, staring at Tyler. Tyler looked up, distracted.

"Tyler,"

"Yes?"

"I want coffee."

"Mmhm."

"Wanna go get some?"

"No."

"Where did you learn to be so cruel?" Josh all but whined.

With a sigh, Tyler put his pen down and looked at Josh. He was pulling a ridiculous but also cute puppy dog face. Great, Tyler thought to himself, of course, he had to go.

"Fine"

"Tyler! Thank you! Bless you! You are wonderful and I am so lucky to have you in my life!" Josh bounced across the room to him, tugging at his sleeve for him to get up. Tyler couldn't help but laugh.

As they were walking down the corridor a door to their right swung open, this was only unusual because it was a cupboard, only five feet deep.

"Oh shit, hi guys," Frank said, walking out of the cupboard looking ruffled.

Tyler jumped in surprise.

"What the fuck?" Frank gasped.

"What? You scared me? I'm allowed to be surprised, right?" Tyler said as Frank stared at him.

"Nothing, don't worry I just tripped out for a second, it's fine now," He said still looking spooked but carrying on casually,

"Why were you in there anyway?" Josh asked.

"Oh, I saw Brendon come down here, he looked like he was recruiting everyone and I didn't want him to see me."

"So you hid?"

"Yeah"

"Me and Ty were just going to the coffee shop down the street, do you wanna join?"

"Yeah, why not? I think they were heading to the library so it should be safe there."

"Woah, man are you really that scared of him?"

"No, I just don't wanna be dragged into his shit"

Once they were at the coffee shop Tyler ordered their drinks and took them back to the table that the other two had found by a front window. Placing the tray down, Tyler slouched into a chair and began picking at his caramel slice.

"I was wondering, how old are you two?" Frank asked as he tucked his feet up onto his chair.

"I'm seventeen," Tyler said, Josh nodded.

"Wait, what the hell, how are you here, living with strangers and not at home waiting for your mums to make you lunch and like going to school?" Frank asked bewildered.

That stumped Tyler, he sat staring at Frank. He didn't have an answer, why didn't he have an answer?

After a moment Josh spoke, "It's our school holiday and to be honest? Our mums don't really care what we do, I told mine that I was going on a camping trip with friends" Josh put his arm around Tyler and squeezed his shoulder as he spoke, Tyler was carefully inspecting his caramel shortbread, it was decidedly more crumbly than the last one he had eaten here.

"My mum was never that chill, you're lucky man" Frank said, shaking his head.

Tyler tried very hard for the duration of the time at the coffee shop to stay calm, Josh carried most of the conversation and put his hand on Tylers shoulder every now and again, as though to reassure him. As it neared to lunchtime Frank got a call from Gerard who told him that he had woken up early.

"Mind if I head back now?" Frank asked, draining the last of his coffee.

"Sure, see you later" Josh replied, had gripping harder on Tylers shoulder.

Waiting until Frank was a safe distance away, he turned to face Tyler. His face dropping, he suddenly looked as scared as Tyler felt.

"What the fuck"

"You just made all of that up didn't you?" Tyler asked,

"Yeah, yeah I did"

"Is it just me or had you also not even given a second thought to coming here? I feel like I'm dissociating, what the fuck is going on."

"I don't know Tyler. I don't know, I don't, I don't know?" Joshs voice was growing ever more distressed.

They were beginning to draw attention, people were side eyeing them, noticing their agitation.

"Maybe we should go back to the shop" Josh suggested, feigning calm.

Tyler merely nodded, he wasn't sure that he could, say anything. Getting up Josh held out his hand for Tyler to take. He wasn't sure how long they had been sat there but his legs felt heavy as he lifted himself up, he couldn't bring himself to look Josh in the eyes, who gently ushered him out of the coffee shop before they drew any more attention. Tyler felt zoned out like he couldn't open his eyes wide enough, wasn't really processing what was happening or where he was.

Stepping out onto the street, he squinted, it was too bright. Josh still had ahold of his hand, which was comforting, he tried to focus on that, just on how Joshs hand felt in his. Warm and very slightly sweaty, real, very real. They reached the shop and headed to their shared bedroom, Josh seemed to want to get them away from everyone just as much as Tyler did.

Josh began pacing the room, his eyes unsteady. "Right, well we need to ground ourselves, obviously we're tripping out."

"Do you think we were drugged?" Tyler asked, not really believing it but needing to say something.

"I mean, no?"

"Okay. Okay, well maybe if we just talk about what happened, leading up to us coming here." Tyler tried hard to focus his mind. Trying not to pay attention to his hands that didn't look like his hands or the light that was, much too bright.

"That might help"

"Right so we met at school, right? We met and after school finished, we rode our bikes to the mortuary, and then, well then everything went crazy."

Josh paused, "Before that? Before anything weird happened, normal stuff like waking up and your mum making you breakfast."

"Um, I had toast for breakfast and my dad was sat at the table, like usual, drinking black coffee. Mum and dad were laughing, about something, I think? I'm not sure."

Josh stopped pacing. "I don't remember the morning before school." He said slowly. "I don't remember anything about it."

"That's normal right? Sometimes I forget what I had for dinner yesterday."

"But that's the thing. I don't remember the day before Tyler."

"Come here," Tyler said softly, gesturing for Josh to sit beside him.

"What do you remember?"

"I'm not sure anymore."

"Do you have any pets?" Tyler asked,

"No, I don't"

"Okay, do you have any siblings?"

"I, I'm not sure. I'm not sure Tyler?" Josh looked up, stricken.

"I don't think I remember much either. Josh, I just tried to think of a question for you and realized that I don't know what my mums name is."

"What is happening to us?" Josh whispered, staring blankly at the opposite wall.

Tyler didn't know.

"We need to talk to someone, I know you didn't want to tell Frank earlier but maybe we should go find someone?"

"Patrick, I trust Patrick."

"Okay, let's go find him"

They lifted themselves off of the bed and went out in search of Patrick, Tyler thought about his mum, she was all blonde hair and kind eyes. She was warm hugs when Tyler was too tired and wanted to cry, she was chasing him across the park, catching him by his middle and spinning him around. What was her name?

The corridor felt too narrow, the floorboards under his feet were creaking too much. His stomach felt uneasy, he needed to gnash his teeth. Josh was too close, Tyler could hear his every breath. He could feel heat radiating off of Josh, too much, sweat began to bead on his forehead.

He tried his best to slowly withdraw, back into the bedroom, away, away, away. Maybe he could crawl under the bed. Josh saw him however and matched his steps, eyes inquisitive.

"Tyler," Josh said simply, Tyler understood.

"It's hard, I'm confused, I'm confused Josh, why are we both so confused?"

"I don't know Ty, but don't close off on me. For some reason, you're the only thing that makes sense."

"No, you're not allowed to say that," Tylers hands were in his hair now, pulling just enough to feel uncomfortable.

Josh looked hurt, he turned away, Tyler didn't like that. Tyler was conflicted.

"Why do I feel like I know you so well? Why do I know your favorite cereal? Every shade you've ever dyed your hair? Why don't I know my own mothers name?" Tyler burst out in frustration, he wanted Josh to look back at him. Thankfully he did.

"I'm in this too Ty! I don't even know where I live, do I have siblings? Do I love them? Do I love anything in this godforsaken world but you?"

Tyler froze, but felt calm, finally calm, in knowing something with certainty. He loved Josh too, "I love you too Josh."

Josh stood in the hallway, eyes wide and dark.

"Okay." Tyler said slowly, "You and I, we're Tyler and Josh. Josh and Tyler, that's enough for right now."

"Let's go sit on your bed, I'll open the windows, we'll try to calm down," Josh said, nodding softly.

They sat like that for hours, a cool breeze filling the room as they listened to the distant city noises. Josh grabbed a hoodie from behind him, handing it to Tyler when he saw his arms begin to goosebump.

It grew dark except for the orange glow of a street lamp that was casting a square of light onto the wooden floor and part of the mattress. Tyler began to feel drowsy, letting himself flop back onto the duvets. He held his arm up, letting the orange light dance across his fingers as he moved them, Josh joined him, laying back as well. They lay watching the light and shadow, not thinking of much else. No mothers or cereal or too familiar strangers.


	10. Boys are Forgotten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of 2 Tylers POV

Tyler was curled up as much as the uncomfortable seat would allow, trying his best to ignore the stuffy scent that filled the coach. Josh was stretched out beside him, somehow asleep, mouth agape. Tyler couldn't understand it, how anyone could possibly sleep with all the noise that the people who were sat behind them were making. He was currently willing himself, not to get up and tell them to shut the fuck up.

They had left early that morning, in the time between the vampires retiring to bed and the humans getting up. They hadn't told anyone, partly because everything was too uncertain to know who their allies were. If this memory loss were somehow a consequence of the company that they were keeping then well, who could they trust?  
They almost told Patrick, he'd been walking up the stairs to his bedroom when they were packing to leave, but somehow they couldn't bring themselves to. This frustrated Tyler, how could they be considering so much now? When they had left so abruptly and unthinkingly in the first place?

The sun was shining but it only further annoyed him. It was too bright, a band of light was hitting him perfectly in the face no matter which way he turned. They had been on the bus for hours, it was afternoon now so they would be arriving at their destination soon. To what? Scared parents? Police search parties?

Tyler considered this and decided that their memory loss were a good enough excuse for them not to be in trouble. As if that even mattered, considering everything that they had seen. He began to focus on his breathing again and pressed his forehead to Joshs side. Real, Josh was real. No one could dispute that. Everything else? Yeah, but not Josh.

By the time that the coach stopped Tylers stomach was aching with hunger, he almost felt embarrassed as it gurgled loudly. But frankly? He didn't give a fuck.

"Mornin' Ty" Josh said, stretching his arms up.

"Definitely not morning." Tyler let himself smile.

"I'm starving" Josh illustrated this by rubbing his stomach, "wanna get some food first?"

"Yeah." Despite how desperately he had wanted to get home, Tyler now felt like he needed to stall.

Stepping off of the bus a waft of stuffy air hit him square in the face. After an uncomfortable moment it dispersed and Tyler inhaled the fresh air greedily.

"Hey, you're gonna make yourself gassy."

"That's cute." 

They noticed a dinner close by the bus station so they made their way towards it. Josh looked very determined, taking big strides, so that Tyler had to hurry to keep up with him.

They quickly found a booth and a bored looking waitress come over to them as they slid themselves in.

"Hi, what can I get for ya?" She asked them.

Quickly scanning the menu they ordered two plates of pancakes, a black coffee and some orange juice. The two sat in silence, waiting for their food to arrive.   
The dinner was a nice enough environment, the kind of place where you could be anywhere in America and it would look just the same.   
Sitting there, it felt to Tyler as though he and Josh were the only people in the world, no past, no future. A bubble in time, that smelt like coffee and pancakes.

Time has a funny way of always moving forward though, whether you want it to or not. So, soon enough they had to pick themselves up and keep moving.

"We can go to your house first if you want Josh," Tyler was mostly just nervous to see his and still stalling.

"Okay" Josh sounded equally nervous but resolute. "I still don't really remember where it is though."

"Oh, right. Well do you think it might be near the school?"

"Yea, I suppose we could just walk around until we find it?"

"Sure."

They set off on foot, they could have taken a bus but Tyler didn't want to feel so suffocated again and in his opinion, the longer they took, the better.

By the time they made it to the school, Josh was feeling more certain of the direction.

"I still don't remember, but it feels familiar here and that's better than nothing at all." Josh looked much more hopeful than Tyler felt. He was also taking the excessive heat of the day in his stride, not looking at all flustered. Tyler envied him.

He trailed behind as Josh walked, he looked like a dog following a scent, Tyler thought to himself and choked down a giggle. The elusive scent of their memories.

They were in a suburban part of town, sprinklers were teasing them, looking refreshing as they watered front lawns. Tyler wondered what the odds were of him getting away with running through one without being seen. Slim. There were kids out, skating and yelling. People walking their dogs or lounging under the shade of their trees. Every few steps Tyler seemed to catch a waft of barbecues, it was all surreally normal. Both familiar and completely intangible, Tyler couldn't grasp a single memory of living this kind of life.   
Was he now losing more memories? How would he know?

He just followed Josh, concentrating on the parched earth beneath his feet as though he could think of nothing more interesting.

"I really need the toilet man," Josh declared as they were passing by a small park, Tyler looked up to find him gazing longingly at a dirty looking public toilet building.

"Sure, I'll just be here"

As Josh left, Tyler surveyed the park. There was an icecream trunk sat beside the curb, which most of the children seemed to have abandoned the play-park in favor of. Towards the back of the lawn, there was a basketball court, where a group of teenagers were running around. One kid was pouring a bottle of water over his head, Tyler sympathized and wondered whether he should have gone to the toilet just to splash himself with water. He couldn't see anyone he recognized, however, somehow he knew that he liked basketball but couldn't seem to work out whether this had been a haunt of his. The whole thing was just too confusing and uncomfortable and... fuck it.

Instead of trying to work anything else out he sat down on a nearby bench, feeling the sun-warmed metal against his thighs. The air was heavy and soupy, he could feel a drip of sweat making its was down his spine. He was uncomfortable, in every way that a person could be.   
An overwhelming surge of frustration made him lean back heavily on the bench, throwing his weight into it. Having expected a harsh slap of metal against his back he turned, surprised. The bench had moulded to his shape, pushed back as though the metal were butter. Tyler shook his head in confusion, the workmanship must have been very dodgy. He supposed that it was a very hot day and perhaps the bench were at he end of its lifespan?

Unsettled, he began pacing back on forth on the pavement in front of the bench. He was sticky and miserable. Looking up he saw Josh striding across the grass towards him.

"Lets keep going Ty." Joshes voice didn't sound as strong and confident as he looked outwardly. Tyler wanted in that moment to just grab his hand and run away, make some new life where memories didn't matter.

But of course, he couldn't. They needed to get to the bottom of this. They needed to get their memories back, get their own lives back.

It felt to Tyler like days before they reached a red-brick house. It stood as ominously as a suburban house could.

"This is it." Joshes voice was as soft as a breath.

Tyler wanted to take his hand but didn't think it was appropriate. Instead he walked a step behind him, mirroring Joshes slow, careful strides up to the front door.

After ringing the doorbell and a resulting scuffle of noise from within the house, the door opened. In the doorway stood a woman, short in stature with blonde hair and a friendly face.

"Hello, how can I help you?" She asked in a sweet voice that Tyler could sense held no recognition. His heart started to beat faster.

"Wha-" Joshes voice broke off, strangled, "Mom?"

Her kind face now looked scared, not just confused but outright scared. Her eyes wide with sharp fear. Tyler shivered, everything in him wanting to leave.

"Mum! What's wrong? Why are you scared? Mom what is happening?" Joshes voice was growing ever more frantic but his mother was cowering away, staring up at Josh with fearful eyes.

Tyler too looked toward Josh, but it wasn't Josh standing there. Sure, he looked like Josh but Joshes eyes weren't red and this boys were.

Tylers intake of breath made not-Josh turn his gaze on him. His red eyes fractionally widening,   
"Tyler?" he whispered.

"William... William!" Joshes mom began calling through the house.

Tyler wanted to leave, he wanted to leave, right now. Away from not-Josh and Joshes moms fear and Joshes dad who was now rushing to his wifes side. He could barely think, he needed to go to his house, he needed to find his mom. He needed this to make sense.

Without checking to see if Josh was following, Tyler turned on his heel and ran. Ran fast across the hot pavement, fast down the not quite familiar streets, methodically putting one foot in front of the other until he was stood in front of a house. The sun was shining on it, the white cladding emitting a hazy glow.

From the side-gate, Tyler could see   
the blue sky was swirled with smoke, a woody scent making its way to him. He followed it, walking to the gate, Tyler saw that his family were in the back yard having a barbecue. There was a boy with them, in the garden. He was about Tylers age, spraying a water gun across the garden at Tylers mom. Indignation rose to his throat but his mom just laughed and called the boy over. Sweeping him into a big wet hug, making the boy squirm. Now wet too and squealing "Mom!" 

Tyler staggered backward, sending a plant pot behind him to the ground. Ceramic littered the floor, stricken, he looked instinctively to see if his mom were going to tell him off.

"Hello?" She called, turning to the source of the noise and meeting Tylers eyes.

He just stared right back at her. Letting everything wash around in his head, unsure if he wanted any of it to make sense. Something was shifting, something huge, whether he wanted it to or not, and he could barely breathe as the pieces began to fit together. His mom didn't remember him.

He ducked to the side, a sick feeling rising in his chest. After pressing his forehead against the hot brick of the house, Tyler peeked over the fence once more. His moms attention had shifted so Tyler stayed like that, watching his family talking jovially with not-Tyler. 

"Don't look, don't hurt your heart like that" Josh gently whispered from behind him, his voice choked.

Josh was beside him now, Tyler was distantly glad of that.  
He felt numb, as though watching the scene from a great distance, Tyler and Josh stood down there, watching their lives fall apart. Floating above it until his mothers voice echoed in his head; 'Its okay Tyler, I'm here now, I've got you,' and the accompanying burst of raw pain almost makes him throw up.

"But Josh, I remember her washing my grazed knee, I fell so hard" Tyler gasped out "So hard, that I made a hole in my new trousers. They were really expensive, but she didn't care one bit. She knelt by me and washed my knee and her eyes are like honey Josh, and her hands are soft Josh. She loved me so much, she loves me so much." His voice faltered, "She loves him so much."

His knees were suddenly unsteady beneath him as the whole thing seemed to hit him like a tidal wave.   
Looking to Josh for stability, all he could see were red eyes.

"What are we?"

He could hardly focus everything was moving so fast, flashes of red and darkness, so much darkness, fast, fast, cold gripping his bones. He startled as he felt Josh take ahold of his hand. Black, black, Tyler couldn't see anymore, black, red, black, but he knew with certainty that the woman standing in the garden wasn't his mother.


	11. Boys Grieve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise! this one's mikeys POV

Mikey was sitting on his bed listening to The Misfits. He had the volume all the way up but his headphones were shit so he could still hear Gerard in the basement, after an indecisive moment he pulled off the headphones altogether and lay back, just listening to Gerard. He was playing guitar and screaming, it was pretty cool. Sometimes Gerard would actually start singing and that was what Mikey liked best. He was known to sneak downstairs so that he could sit on the basement steps to listen to him.  
Gerard was angry a lot but never with Mikey, and his music was angry but Mikey liked that.

He began to feel sleepy, it was a hazy summers day and his bed felt pleasantly warmed by the sun. He began stretching his legs out, eyes closing.

The noise of his door woke him up, he wiped at his cheek with his sleeve where he had been drooling.

"Hey kid, I'm headed to work, wanna tag along?" Gerard asked, as he opened Mikeys door and popped his head in, "Theres a coke in it for you!" He was grinning, showing both rows of white teeth.

Knowing that Gerard already knew he would want to come and definitely didn't need persuading or bribing with cola. Mikey jumped up from his bed, scrambling to grab his shoes from under a pile of clothes.  
Once they were tied he headed downstairs to where Gerard was putting his jacket on.  
Tossing him a coke can Gerard yelled through the house to their mom, "We're going now, bye!" 

Outside Mikey took a deep breath, the summery scent that was rising up from the sun-baked earth filling his senses. A gentle breeze kept him from feeling uncomfortable as they made their way to the comic book store in companionable silence.

It was his favourite place, he loved to hang out while Gerard was working. He got to read as many comics as he wanted and all of the regular customers knew him.

As soon as they got there Mikey made himself comfortable, sitting on the checkout.

"Hi Bert, I'm here to relieve you" Gerard said walking in behind Mikey.

"Oh are you?" Bert replied, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

"No. Bye, I'll see you later, are you still coming over tonight?"

"Wouldn't miss it! Bye Mikey!" Bert called back as he opened the door to leave.

"Bye!" Mikey replied, before turning to look at Gerard, "Anything new I should read Gee?"

"I have actual customers you know." Gerard replied, eyeing how much space Mikey was taking up on the counter.

"Right but can you recommend me something?" Mikey said, ignoring Gerards comment.

"I added loads of new stock to the horror section at the back yesterday."

"Sweet!"

Mikey promptly jumped off of the side and made his way to the back of the store where there was a customer already looking through the horror section  
Mikey promptly jumped off of the side and made his way to the back of the store where there was a customer already looking through the horror section. Mikey thought he looked cool, weird, but cool. He was wearing gloves so long they disappeared under his t-shirt sleeves and had an umbrella despite the cloudless sky outside.

"Hi!" He said, turning as Mikey approached. He was extremely pale, Mikey thought that Gerard would be jealous.

"Hi, found anything good?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, there are some cool vampire comics here," he replied with a wide grin. "Vampires are awesome."

"Yeah I know right!"

"Look at this one," The man said enthusiastically, leaning closer so that Mikey could see the comic. "I'm Pete by the way!"

"I'm Mikey, the kid behind the counter is my brother Gee"

"Oh I know Gerard! He mentioned that you hung out here a lot."

Unceremoniously five comics fell from the shelf, Mikey didn't understand how considering that neither he nor Pete were moving. He could have sworn he heard Pete mumble "What are you doing?" but Mikey definitely hadn't pushed the comics so he was confused. Pete quickly picked them up, haphazardly putting them back on the shelf.

"Er, I have to go now, I think my boyfriends ringing," Pete said, despite no phone ringing, "Nice to meet you Mikey!"

After he had gone, Mikey picked up the comic that Pete had been trying to show him and took it back to the till, where he climbed up and sat cross legged.

"Your coke is going to get warm Mikey," Gerard said, leaning against the till.

Mikey opened his can, listening closely to the satisfying tsk sound.

"Pete seemed cool." Mikey said, settling down and taking a sip.

"Yeah he's really friendly. He comes in sometimes, he has an obsession with vampire comics, every time I get new stock he comes in." Gerard replied, as he began sticking labels on products. "He always wears weird shit, and I think he talks to himself but I think he's cool."

Mikey began flipping through the comic, thinking about Petes weird exit. Trying to take a sip of his coke at the same time, he accidentally dropped it onto the comic.

"Fuck!"

"Aw man, I'm gonna have to buy that for you now." Gerard said looking at the spilt coke. "And to think I just brought you tickets to see The Smashing Pumpkins," he continued with an exaggerated sigh.

"What! Gee! Did you really?"

"Yeah!" Gerard said grinning, "It's in two weeks."

"Thank you so much Gee!" Mikey near squealed before adding "I thought you were going with Bert?"

"I wouldn't leave you out?" 

 

Eight Years Later:

His mother had asked him to go through the things in the basement, she wanted to convert the room. Now that some time had passed.  
It smelt stale down here, he didn't mind. Walking over, he picked up Gerards guitar, Mikey had always played bass but maybe he should learn guitar?  
Everything was where Gerard had left it. As though he would trundle down the steps, throw his jacket on the floor and sink back into his desk chair, start drawing, reading comics, listening to too loud music or watching a shitty horror film.

Sometimes Bert still came around, to ruffled Mikeys hair and watch horror films with him, but he was Gerards friend. They both knew it, knew that when they hung out there was an empty chair waiting for Gerard.

Mikey sighed, frustrated. He was supposed to put this away, he was supposed to put Gerard away. It was becoming a shrine they said, Mikey didn't agree, you can't put a whole person in a box.  
That box would become the shrine. You should keep them around you, read their comics, listen to their cds. He couldn't bring himself to see that as unhealthy, as not moving on.

Either way, Gerard would be with him every day for the rest of his life. He would be there every time someone said his name, every time he let his mind wonder, every night when he went to bed.  
It had been two years since Gerard had died. His grief wasn't so fresh anymore, it was well worn. There were still moments where he would break down sobbing, sure. But it was mostly a heavy weight, a lingering not right feeling.

He bent down to start collecting all of Gerards comics together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, we're posting this story on wattpad as well, its maybe slightly more prompt on there bc the interface is easier to use for uploading/editing? but yea, we've been illustrating this, which has been pretty cool, and is gonna include comic strips? but as far as i know i can only post them on the story with wattpad? if anyone has any idea of how to show everyone on there the illustrations that'd be reallllllyy helpful! but thank you for reading this far, we're really enjoying writing it


	12. Boys Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part one of two, Franks POV. This one is set in current time.

When Frank woke up he lay still for a moment, eyes closed and careful not to move he could imagine Gerard laying beside him, imagining how the weak evening light would colour his skin.   
That of course wouldn't happen, for many reasons. Namely because sunlight would burn Gerard to a crisp.   
Rolling onto his side Frank couldn't think of anything to do before the sun set, at which time he would visit Gerard. So he allowed himself to drift off into a half wakefulness. 

When his alarm woke him once more the room was fully dark, he rolled onto his side, stretching out his tired legs. Feeling irritated because day napping had never felt great and often left him grouchy, he slid off of the mattress and softly padded to the window. Its frame was beginning to rot from damp and neglect, small flakes of wood falling away as he leant out to take in the view and a deep breath of the nights air before carefully pulling the window shut. 

Making his way downstairs, he passed no one besides the paintings that lined the walls towards the kitchen. A few of which he was now convinced were paintings of Billy Joe. The door to Gerards orangery was already open when he approached.

"Frank," Gerard smiled in a relieved sort of way, "Good morning."

"Hey Gee," he replied, walking further into the room. 

Upon noticing Tyler and Josh who were crouched towards the back of the room amongst the plants, Frank looked towards Gerard inquisitively. 

"They've been in here since I woke up," Gerard said sounding strained, "They keep pulling the plants out of their pots, I haven't had the heart to tell them to stop." 

Frank felt itchy annoyance run through him so wheeled around to face them.

"Can you two fucking stop it?" He snapped at the two who were still upturning ceramic pots so that the plants would fall to the floor. 

"Oh," Tyler said looking up at Frank, a slow smile spreading across his face, "Sure, we can stop. What are you guys doing today? Mind if we join?" 

Frank was about to tell them that he did mind but Gerard spoke first, "Okay, but we don't have any set plans, we were just gonna hang out." 

"I love to hang out," Tyler continued to grin in a horribly manic way.

"Yeah me too." Josh said, putting the plant pot he had been holding to one side.

Frank glared at them. But had a horrible feeling that this only encouraged them further. He couldn't figure out why they were acting so oddly, he hadn't pegged them as the weird type when he'd first met them. They had actually been the only other normal people of the group, so he couldn't help but wonder whether being around supernatural creatures could rub off on you. Could you be sent insane through too much contact?

"Well lets not sit here in silence, I'm bored." Tyler said and Frank only just held himself back from snapping about how it wasn't their duty to entertain him.

"Well I for one have frogs to attend to." Gerard said as he walked across the room to pick up two of his frogs. "Here, you can help if you like?" He asked Tyler, handing one of the frogs to him.

Tyler looked down curiously at the frog, which was currently scrambling to be free. It almost looked panicked, if a frog could look panicked. 

"Er, maybe I'll take him back" Gerard said in concern, reaching out for the creature once more. Before he could take it however the frog leapt out of Tylers hand. Showing its great leaping ability it made its way speedily in high arcs to the other side of the room. Gerard quickly retrieved it, making soothing sounds and walking back to the other frogs. 

Time felt like an intangible, stretchy thing whilst Frank watched Gerard methodically lift each frog and dampen them in the sink. For how long, he didn't know. His trance was only broken when Josh spoke,

"We should go out."

"You know, you're probably right." Gerard replied with a sigh, "I've washed all of the frogs twice over now out of sheer boredom."

"We could go to the cafe?" Tyler suggested.

"I don't want to go there." Frank said, trying to keep his irritation out of his voice. But maybe failing. 

After a moment Gerard spoke again. "Well, Pete was telling me about this late night arcade that he had seen, that could be fun?" 

"That sounds sick!" Tyler said standing up quickly before offering a hand to Josh. 

Frank nodded, caving to the prospect of being around people despite not being in the mood. 

That's how he found himself at an arcade at 11pm sullenly watching Gerard and Tyler have a dance battle on the Dance Dance Revolution machine. Frank silently admitted to himself though that Gerard was endlessly distracting. Black mood aside, Gerard could Dance. 

The whole thing was kind of spectacular, what with Gerard shimmying and Tyler doing moves that Frank didn't know were moves until he saw them. When Josh came back with an armful of slushies Frank took one gratefully, the room was hot and smelt vaguely of teen boys. 

"Frank!" Gerard exclaimed excitedly, "You're up next and I bet you I'll beat your ass." 

"I don't dance!" Frank argued, trying to resist Gerard's hand tugging at his wrist.

"Pleeease," He whispered leaning closer, "Tyler jumped on my foot maybe fifteen times, and after the fifth it was hard to believe it wasn't purposeful." 

"Oh, Okay." Frank maybe only said yes because Gerard was intoxicating this close but no one was to know that. 

Letting Gerard grasp his hand and drag him to his doom he sighed. Gerard could make him do anything, he was sure of it. However, he found the game surprisingly fun. And yes, Gerard beat him by over half but that was okay because he got to see him expertly shimmying and wiggling, and mostly Frank just giggled while trying to put his feet on the right square. 

Once Gerard had beaten him twice over, they went over to collapse on a pair of motorcycles that were attached to a game of some kind. 

"Well I'm fuckin' sleepy now," Gerard told him, resting his forearms against the motorcycle handles. Frank found himself fascinated watching him, Gerards cheeks were flushed pink with exertion, he almost looked alive. 

"I've been tired all night," Frank confessed, pulling at his frayed sleeves. 

"Thats been kind of obvious" Gerard replied with a laugh. 

Frank only grumbled in response and rested his forehead against the cool plastic of the motorcycle. 

After a moment Gerard spoke again, "Don't suppose you fancy a game of whatever this is with me do you?" Smiling he leant over to nudge Frank who grunted again and turned his face to look at him.

"No." 

"What about guitar hero?" He asked, smirk growing. 

Frank really didn't want to play any game, whether guitars were involved or not. 

"I'd let you beat me this time," Gerard promised solemnly. 

Frank scoffed, "I'd beat you at that game whether I tried to or not." He took a deep breath, "I kind of just feel a bit shit though." 

"Hey," Gerard said in surprise at Franks honestly, "Come here." 

Frank lifted himself upright and Gerard promptly leant forward to pull him into a hug. Gerard was sweaty, he even smelt a bit, Frank somehow didn't mind at all. 

As they pulled apart, Frank couldn't look away from Gerards face, the blue lights from the stupid game they were sitting at, were moving across Gerards face, catching his eyelashes, the sharp swoop of his nose.   
This was getting out of hand. 

Gerard seemingly unaware got out a piece of chewing gum, offered one to Frank who waved it off, and then put one in his mouth.   
Fuck.   
Frank tried hard not to watch his mouth, he really did. 

At that moment they were interrupted by a tired looking employee. "Time to go." He said, leaning behind the machine to pull out the plug. 

"Sorry!" Gerard said perkily, jumping up and offering Frank a hand up. "Have a good night." 

"Yea bye," Frank muttered, concentrating on Gerards hand against his until Gerard dropped it. Frank wished he had kept ahold of it, he wished he had the guts to say so. But Gerard made him uncharacteristically shy.

"Hey boys!" Tyler said excitedly, catching up with them and putting an arm around Franks shoulder.   
Frank shrugged him harshly off, he didn't like being touched at the best of times. 

"Want your slushie Frank? Its kinda melted but probably still tastes good?" Josh asked, holding out the plastic cup Frank had abandoned earlier. 

"Gross. But, er, sure." Frank took the cup, mostly wanting something to do with his hands if he couldn't be holding Gerards. 

 

The rest of the early morning, their version of the afternoon, passed without incident. Only broken up by an ecstatic shout ringing through the house.

"Frogs!!!" Brendons high voice screamed. 

A moment later Frank saw through the open orangery doorway, Brendon barge into the kitchen from the basement. He was looking around with a huge grin plastered on his face, but didn't notice Frank. 

"We're over here Brendon," Frank said, reluctantly waving him over. As much as Frank disliked him, he thought that he could be a good distraction for Tyler and Josh.   
Like the nursery-rhythm about a little old lady who swallowed a fly, and then ate a spider to eat the fly inside her. Frank was tired and didn't have a good analogy. 

Brendon turned, face lighting up even further if that's possible and rushing to the orangery. "Frogs! I know where Gerards frogs are coming from!" 

Genuinely interested Frank sat up straighter, "Where?" 

"Okay, so I needed a pee right? But all of the downstairs toilets were being used, Billie doesn't like it at all if you walk in on him peeing and try to share the toilet by the way." He didn't look at all ashamed. "Right so, I remembered someone saying there was one in the basement, so I rushed down and got my shoes soaked! Its flooded, I think it floods a lot down there, but! Frogs! There were so many fucking frogs man!" Brendon said all in one  
breath.

When Frank looked to Gerard for confirmation, he had a smile that could only be described as cheeky, his eyes glittering mischievously. 

 

It was only hours from sunrise when Frank and Gerard decided to pay Pete a visit. Tyler and Josh had seemed eager to join, Frank couldn't seem to shake them.   
They'd been hanging around all night and he had been trying to shake them off all night. All he really wanted was to be alone with Gerard. He wasn't in the mood for company and they kind of creeped him out anyway.   
But here he was, sitting wedged between them on Pete and Patricks bed. 

"Hey Pete, are you feeling any better?" Frank asked out of politeness.

"Yeah..." but Frank didn't listen to his response, he was much too busy watching Gerard who had somehow gotten away from the creepy twins and was now leaning his head out of the bedroom window. He looked like he was enjoying the wind in his hair as it whipped around his face. 

Frank shifted uncomfortably and turned back to the group he was sitting with. Pete was looking at him expectantly, obviously waiting for acknowledgement of whatever he had just answered. 

"Oh." Frank hoped that was enough of a response. 

"Sick." Tyler said encouragingly, leaning forwards on his elbows, apparently very engaged in what Pete was saying.

"Yea, sick" Josh added, practically bouncing with excitement.

Frank was bemused, now wishing he had paid attention to what Pete had said. 

"Er, yeah, I suppose. It's just really scary you know? Like all this time no one has found me, but now that I know they're hunting me? I feel like they're gonna burst in the room at any moment." 

"That's understandable. Statistically you're more likely to be found now, I mean you've gone undetected for so long that you're like a ticking time bomb." Tyler said, leaning impossibly closer.

"Yea, BAM!" Josh interjected, smacking his hand onto the bedpost, making Frank and Pete jump.

"Exactly, BAM! Any second now probably." Tyler said matter of factly. Frank wasn't sure he agreed with this and Pete was visibly looking distressed.

"You're shaking Pete, how are you feeling?" Josh asked, 

"Kind of anxious, like I've got a blackhole in my stomach?"

"Oh man," Josh said his smile growing, Frank was now watching the two closely, they seemed to be enjoying this. 

"That's fucked up." Frank found himself saying aloud.

Tyler turned to look at him, eyes flashing briefly red before turning back to Pete. Frank felt a jolt run through him. 

He hadn't imagined that.

Thinking fast he pushed himself up off of the bed, jostling everyone in the process.

"I need the toilet," he told them before turning to Gerard, "Hey Gee, Pete isn't feeling great, promise to stay with him?" 

"Sure." Gerard pulled himself away from the window, hair wild and eyes bright.

Frank took half a moment to admire him and then made his way quickly down the stairs, taking two at a time. 

"Patrick?" Frank found him sitting with Dallon at the chess table. 

"Hi Frank," He said happily until he looked up and saw Franks face, "What's wrong?" 

"I, I'm not sure, I just wanted to ask you a question?" 

"Sure!" 

"I know that ghosts, vampires and demons exist. But is there anything else?" 

"Oh yeah, banshees, goblins, fae... a lot of folklore is based on real creatures." 

Frank paused to absorb that and readjust his world view, "Shit, okay, right, is there anything with bright red eyes?" 

"I have red eyes!" Dallon perked up, and just as he said it his eyes did indeed flash red. "All demons do. In the human realm they only really show when we're feeling intense emotion or feeding on someone elses negative emotion." 

Frank sat down heavily on a dresser behind him, "Shit." 

He felt an uncomfortable feeling run down his limbs and make its home in his stomach.

"Are you okay Frank?" Patrick asked looking genuinely concerned.

"What? Um, yeah I'm fine." And with that he lifted himself back up and turned on his heel, running back to Petes room. 

"Gerard?" Frank said with urgency, looking around the room frantically until his gaze fell on Gerard who was sitting on the bed looking at him questioningly. "Oh hi, are you okay?" 

"I'm fine Frank," Gerard said slowly and began looking him up and down, "Are you?" 

Gerard slid off of the bed and walked to Frank, his face the picture of concern. Frank didn't respond, instead moving closer and pulling Gerard into a hug. He let himself stay like that for a moment, his face buried in Gerards neck. 

"Frank?" Gerard whispered 

"I'm fine Gee, I'm fine" 

Frank let go of him, he was going to fix this, figure out what the fuck was going on and do anything to protect this man. Gerards worried expression softened under Franks gaze.

Turning to the bed, Frank spoke to Tyler and Josh, "Hey guys, wanna go for a walk with me?" 

Tyler looked up curiously, "Sure" 

The two slid off of the bed, Gerard looked questioningly to Frank but he just smiled gently in return. 

"I think Pete needs a hug," Frank said, gesturing to where Pete was huddled pulling at the edge of his blanket. 

As Gerard turned his attention to Pete, Frank gestured for the others to follow him out of the room. They made it half way down the hall before he spoke again.

"Okay, who the fuck are you?" Franks tone of voice was much sharper than it had been moments before. 

Tylers grin grew impossibly larger, he took a moment to look over Frank, "What's it to you?" 

"Well if you're here to hurt Gerard it's everything to me." Frank said doing his best to keep his voice even.

Tylers eyebrows were rising steadily higher, "Oh well, in that case!" He took a step closer, voice dropping. "We're the darkest creatures you will ever meet, more death than life, more-" As he spoke the air around him seemed to shimmer "More, oh I don't know, sorry, I'm just fucking with you" 

"So you're not... the darkest creatures I'll ever meet?" 

"Nah" 

"Right, well you're not human. What are you?" Frank asked still trying hard to keep his voice casual.

"None of your business" Tyler replied dismissively, turning to walk back to Petes bedroom. Franks heart began thudding harder, he couldn't let them get away.

"Wait! Wait, please." 

"Please?" Tyler turned his head to flash a patronising smile over his shoulder. 

"You -you want Gerard right? I'll tell you what I think you are! You're demons and you want to take Gerard!" 

"Well done kiddo, give yourself a pat on the back for me." Tyler barely paused before opening the bedroom door. 

"No! I'll make a deal with you!" Frank wasn't actually sure if 'deals with the devil' were a thing but he was feeling increasingly desperate. 

Tyler let the door fall closed again and slowly turned back to Frank, "Oh." he suddenly looked truly terrifying, all red eyes and vicious smirk "Oh oh! What would Frankie like?" 

"First, just tell me, am I right? Are you just here for Gerard?" Frank tried not to sound as small as he felt.

Tyler seemed to consider that for a moment, sharing a look with Josh who nodded slowly before speaking, "Yes." 

"What will stop you from taking him? How can I stop you?" 

"Well," Tyler turned directing his speech to Josh, "We need a soul right? Any soul will do?" 

"I mean sure, he might be fun to have around, I like how angry he gets." Josh replied cautiously.

"Soul?" Frank couldn't help but interrupt, feeling a dull, sinking sensation in his stomach.

Tyler sighed heavily but Josh answered, "Our mission dictates that we bring back a soul, Gerards namely, but I'm sure we could trick the system with yours." 

"What would happen to me?" 

"Fucking hell, so many questions!" Tyler looked like he was going to bang his head against the wall but Josh put a hand on his shoulder which seemed to calm him. 

"We would take you back to hell with us, you would be technically dead, no coming back." Josh replied patiently. 

Frank wasn't sure he could weigh up his whole life worth right then but he had never wanted to keep anyone safe this much. He was being careful even now not to name how he felt for Gerard.

"It's not so bad really, not all torture and flames, you might surprise yourself and like it." Josh said in a tone that surprisingly made Frank think he was trying to be reassuring. 

"Right, well, will you stay here if I quickly find something out?"

"Sure," Tyler responded, smile turning wicked. 

Despite being unnerved Frank took that at face value and determinedly walked past them back into the bedroom. Gerard was sitting beside Pete on the bed talking in hushed tones. He looked up as Frank walked in, "Gerard how do you feel about me?"

Gerard stared at him bemused, "You're my closest friend Frank, I love you" 

"Right." That was enough for Frank. Abruptly turning on his heels he once again left the room and made his way back to Tyler and Josh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the biggest delay yet! It's been two weeks since the last, I got a new job thats been whipping my ass!


	13. Boys go to Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part two of Franks POV

"Walk with us," Tyler said 

And so the three of them walked further down the corridor until Frank could no longer, until he had to come to a stop for he felt as though his head was imploding. He wanted with everything in him to hit his head, to hit it hit it hit it! But his arms hung limply by his sides. He wanted to scream, if only anyone would come and take his head away. But his mouth wouldn't move, a tiny muffled groan came out, only infuriating him further. 

And then it was gone, all of it. He couldn't feel a thing, felt untethered in fact, as though he was floating. After realising that his eyes were closed he opened them, and with that came not only sight but the feeling of a great weight being put back on him. He realised that it was the weight he had carried his entire life, that of his body. Only now in comparison to nothing it felt like a giant pull to the ground, he had to concentrate hard on not letting it win and crumpling to the floor. 

Tyler was there still, and Josh. But nothing else. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He'd known what he had been doing but it all happened so fast, he was there with Gerard and then? Fuck, he wanted to break down and sob, realising that he wouldn't see Gerard again but instead something deep inside him, deeper than he had perhaps ever felt, was hollow. 

"Tyler?" 

"Stop calling me that." Tyler said shortly, "My name is Blurry and this is Spooky." He finished by gesturing to Josh. 

Frank nodded numbly, turning to look around at the space that they were in. At first he had thought that they were in a featureless vast space but now that his eyes had adjusted he realised that they were standing in a street. Air so still that he hadn't realised that they were outside, sky darker than night somehow. In fact it was not the sky that was darker, though on the horizon, over the rooftops Frank could see a distant red sunset. It was in fact the houses that made the place seem so surreal, all of the windows were dark, darker than dark. Like they were sucking in light and absorbing it. Not only that, but the the houses stood taller than ordinary houses somehow, they looked many stories high. He also noted that the streetlights too were off, no cars drove past or lined the side walk. 

"Well, you don't want to be caught standing still here. We'd better keep moving." Josh, no, Spooky told him before turning to walk down the street. "Stay close kid and don't, er, wander off." 

Frank hurried to catch up to them as they began striding away. Once they had been walking a while Frank saw that each block had a difference, in some, like the one they had arrived in, it was inhumanly dark. In others the air was filled with the fiercest whirling noise, as though they were walking through a gale, but no wind could be felt at all. Or in another block the air had been the consistency of water, his clothes had swayed weightlessly and his hair waved above his head.

It was as cool as it was terrifying.

They passed very few other beings and of the people he did see, some seemed to have no faces at all. Somehow it was hard to tell but if Frank concentrated enough he would realise that where their faces should sit, instead sat a thick darkness.

He pulled his hood over his hair and shoved his hands deep in his pockets, feeling that perhaps, being noticed would be a very scary thing indeed. And then, the earth beneath him simply stopped, where there should have been sidewalk, street lamps and terraced houses there was a sheer drop into an inky black that seemed to be... moving? Weirdly, he hadn't seen it coming, hadn't noticed it until he was stood with his feet at the edge. Spooky gestured for him to follow as he took a sharp turn down a narrow side street, parallel to the cliff. 

The street was tight and when a man came walking towards them they had to shuffle to the side to make room for him to pass. Walking behind the man was a towering figure, silently moving barely a step behind. With no features but a large gash of a mouth, seemingly unable to close, it showcased a row of impossibly long fine teeth. The man did not seem perturbed. If Frank had to guess, he would say the man didn't even know the creature was there. Though how this could be was anyones guess.   
Once they had passed he looked to Spooky, the less intimidating of his two demon companions.

"That was just his guide. And no, he doesn't know he's there. Some people see them, some people don't" Spooky replied to Franks unspoken question.

"But, fuck, does everyone have one then?" 

"Yes, until their faces leave." 

Frank didn't question that.

"Will I get one?" 

"You already do? We're your companions, lucky you." Spooky smiled.

After a while, he began to feel a little bit more comfortable in the ever-changing space. Just enough to start looking around curiously. 

Through some of the houses windows he could see the flickering glow of TV sets. He even noticed a tabby cat making its way leisurely across the roof tops. 

Looking further up he saw that great moving shapes were making their way across the sky. After a moment one changed direction so that now Frank could see an eye, much like a fishes. But so colossal in size that he had a hard time looking at it, feeling as though he were looking down from a great height, somehow in reverse. His stomach clenched tight and he pulled his hood further over his face, looking only at the floor as he walked forward.

It certainly wasn't the hell fires that he had been taught to fear, it was even beautiful in a way. Yet so uncomfortable, so shifting, that Frank found it hard to believe he would last long.

 

The street soon opened out onto a square, it was too dark to see any features of the houses but in the middle of the square was a fenced park. Blurry lead them through a small gate, onto a path that cut through to the opposite corner of the square. Here there was a single street lamp, casting a circle of orange light down onto a park bench. Sitting at the bench, talking jovially with a dark looming creature similar to that of earlier was a young girl. She had long socks that were gathered around here ankles, crisscrossing bandages covering her forearms and large glasses perched on her tiny nose. Frank couldn't help but stare, she looked happy. Even her 'guide' looked happy, if that were possible for a featureless, gash mouthed creature to look. 

Frank wondered what kind of person you would have to be to find happiness here, he wondered if he was that kind of person. 

"Come on" Josh called to him, unthinkingly he had stopped. Hurrying to catch up he noticed that they were breaking out of the residential streets, now coming onto a busy high street. 

There were many different creatures here but Frank knew better than to inspect them and instead walked closely behind Spooky. The road was oily black, reflecting the numerous neon signs and lights that called to them from the shops and buildings. They quickly crossed the road, which was barren of cars besides a singular double decker bus that looked filled with a dense black fog. 

On this side of the road was a building whose green neon sign said 'The Haunt', it looked much like a human nightclub that Frank had always avoided. Stood in the doorway was a thickset man who was unashamedly holding a sword and had an admirable amount of intimidating tattoos. Frank assumed him to be a demon bouncer. But they didn't stop here, instead walking around to the side of the building where there was an alley way, it was dark and wet here. Fans buzzed as they worked to cool the buildings, there were a lot of pipes and a dumpster. 

"One sec kid" Burry said, gesturing for Frank to sit on the fire escape steps, "You can come in if you like but I can't promise I'll protect you." 

"Right, okay I'll wait."

With that Blurry and Spooky went into one of the buildings through the side door. For a moment noise blared out but soon the door softly closed and left Frank with the gentle hum of music through the brick wall. It wasn't unpleasant. Frank decided that if he learnt the rules, learnt the small hidden away parts of this world, he could live a happy life. 

Could he be happy without Gerard? Of course he could. Frank had dealt with breakups, he had fallen in love before. At that thought he began to cough, he hadn't admitted it before. Because that's what he was, in love. Over time he was sure it would soften, he would stop seeing Gerard in everything. Would stop wanting to confide everything interesting he saw in him. Tears started to fall down his face, he was pitiful. Looking at the oil slicked cement floor frank watched as his distorted reflection began dancing, how appropriate. 

"You have a good time for the both of us fella," He told it. 

Spooky returned after a while, "Hey kid." He patted Frank on the shoulder, looking uncomfortable. "Er, would a cigarette make you feel better?" He asked as he pulled a pack from his back pocket.

"You're trying to make me feel better?" Frank looked up at him for the first time, he was sat squat next to him on the metal step, between the last time he'd seen him and now he had been covered in glitter.

"Sure, just don't mention it to anyone." He replied as he put two cigarettes in his mouth, lit them and handed one to Frank.

"Thanks," Frank wiped at his cheeks with his sleeve. 

Frank had barely even taken a puff when Blurry came charging out of the building.

"Hey kids! We gotta go!" He said, eyes wild with excitement.

"Did you kick Andy in the balls again?" Spooky asked with a mischievous smile.

"May have," Blurry replied grabbing Spooky and Franks hands and heaving them up, "Come on!" 

They began running, Blurry kept a tight grip on their hands and cackled with laughter. Distantly Frank heard a shout "Blurry you fuck wit!" 

Frank tried to keep up, they were running very fast and Frank had shorter legs than the other two.

 

Eventually they stopped in a quiet street, outside of a convenience store. 

"Ah, he didn't want to let Frank have the Belveer place" he said, bending over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. 

"He can stay with us for a while, until we can get somewhere appropriate." Spooky said sitting heavily on a short brick wall.

"Yea, you'll be fine Frank." 

Frank was confused and he said as much to the two demons. 

"Oh, right, well we need to assign you a place to live but the only available places right now would probably give you nightmares. So we were trying to bargain with some of the housing department demons to get you somewhere a little nicer." Spooky explained.

"No such luck," Blurry added.

And with that Spooky heaved himself up off of the wall, "Lets go home then, I'm starving." 

The walk 'home' was surprisingly quick. After turning down two roads they were stood in front of a building that seemed to be split into two flats. On the ground floor stood a car port, despite Frank having seen no cars since being there. He wondered why they would design a parking space, Frank didn't know much about architecture but thought that the building didn't look American, he decided that it actually looked Japanese. For that matter, he realised that the whole place had been a mismatch of different cultures, squares of houses that looked as though they belonged in London. Streets narrow and over-hung looked European and some of the wide open streets did look American. 

An external metal staircase on the side of the building lead up to a balcony, from which you could access the front door and single large window that Frank couldn't see much through because it was so dark inside. Lined up next to the red front door were ceramic pots, each filled with lush green plants, ivy that was creeping up the brickwork, lavender that Frank could already smell as they walked up and other plants that he didn't know he names of.  
Blurry let out a huff before quickly walking back down the stairs, Frank looked to Spooky who simply shrugged. Returning a few moments later Blurry was brandishing a long metal pipe.  
With a single hard swing that Frank had to jump out the way of, Blurry smashed all of the ceramic pots. In the silent nights air it made a horrible din.

"What the fuck man!" Frank exclaimed, brushing dirt off of his pants.

"Tyler loved those plants," Blurry said in way of explanation.

"Tyler?" Frank asked in confusion but Blurry ignored him in favour of unlocking the door.

"Home, sweet home!" Blurry said, opening the door wide and walking in. 

A cat immediately came running towards them, meowing loudly. 

"Hey Jenna!" spooky said, bending down to pick the cat up. "I missed you too."

"We've got a new pet to be your friend," Blurry told the cat sincerely, "Jenna this is Frank, Frank this is  Jenna, now, remember that Jenna was here first so she's above you in the pecking order" 

"Right..." Frank replied not fully knowing if Blurry was joking. 

"We have a spare bedroom that you can have Frank, I'll go get you some covers now." Spooky told him before putting the cat down on the kitchen counter and walking further into the flat. 

Blurry walked into a room adjacent, shutting the door behind him, leaving Frank alone with Jenna. 

"Hi," Frank said to the cat. She stared disdainfully back at him, he thought that perhaps she knew he preferred dogs. 

When Spooky returned he led Frank to a room down a corridor. The flat was fairly open plan, the front door opening onto their living room which itself opened onto the modest kitchen. To the side of which was a corridor which lead to three doors, one of these was now Franks.   
He discovered it to be a featureless room, with white walls, a single bed and a plain set of wooden drawers.   
A square window looked out onto the street below, that was all Frank really needed. Spooky had told left him to settle in, quietly closing the door behind him. There wasn't much for him to settle into, so he pushed open the window and leaned out. 

 

A while later he was stood over the bathroom basin, holding an electric-razor that Spooky had lent him and staring unseeingly into the mirror. He began shaving the sides of his hair shorter, where they had grown too long.  
His eyes looked dull somehow, pupils so large that he could barely see any iris, there was no light behind them.   
Once the sides looked right he rummaged in the cabinet beside the sink for the bleach Spooky had told him about.   
He emptied a bottle of peroxide in with some powdered bleach, mixed it and started haphazardly smearing it onto his short hairs. 

He then sat on the edge of the bath waiting for his hair to lighten. It hit Frank that he didn't know if he would ever fully die now, if anyone ever did. Was this new life of his immortal? 

"Want any pasta?" Spooky called from the corridor as Frank was washing his hair in the sink.

"Um, nah, I might go to sleep"

"Okay kid, I'll save you some and leave it in the oven." 

"Thanks," Frank said rubbing a towel to his wet hair and walking out of the bathroom. 

"Looking snappy Frank!" blurry called from the kitchen doorway, holding a baking dish with oven gloves. 

Frank sent him a smile but he knew it was weak and walked into his designated bedroom. He lay down on the mattress, the glow from outside casting green across the room. He curled his body up and stared at the opposite wall.   
He began imagining Gerard sitting beside him, could almost see the indent he would make in the mattress. Imaginary Gerard began gently singing him to sleep, leaning over to run a hand through Franks hair. He looked sympathetic, Frank wasn't sure he wanted that.   
The pillow beneath his head was becoming uncomfortably wet but Frank stayed still, not wanting to accidentally shake his daydream away. He   
soon fell asleep. 

 

A/N: Maybe go listen to The Light Behind Your Eyes.


End file.
